A Rotary club’s charity fundraising could be boosted this Christmas – with the support of a group of local students.
Laura Kiiza, a teacher at Shrewsbury Colleges Group, told members of Shrewsbury Severn Rotary Club that the students, mostly 16 and 17 year olds, could support the Santa sleigh as elves at supermarkets and on village visits. “It would be really valuable for them to be involved in community projects and work with Rotary,” she told members. “We have approximately 120 students in the Preparation Routes department, with different strengths and interests and the next step would be pinpointing a project to see how that goes. Realistically, we start small to see if it works and take it from there and if successful we could look at further projects as well as growing the numbers of students becoming involved.”
Shrewsbury Severn Rotary Club expressed an interest in students visiting to find out more about Rotary and suggested there could be other opportunities, such as planting bulbs around the town and working with Harlescott Grange Community Hub.
Laura, who has been a teacher at Shrewsbury Colleges Group for 10 years, said her students were being prepared with life skills and employability skills as well as gaining qualifications. Her focus was on developing opportunities for students with special educational needs and the less engaged and felt that working with the local community on different projects would bring several prospects. “It would be really valuable for them to be involved in community projects and to work with Rotary – the students themselves ask for something more, including practical activities. I feel they could gain many new skills and build on their knowledge to take into further studies and eventually employment.”
Rotarian Colin Sharp said the club is also looking at opportunities to work with the town council and parish councils on projects they wished to pursue.
Anyone interested in learning more about Rotary can contact gdmw@hotmail.co.uk
