New president urges more people to join their local Rotary Club (From Malvern Gazette)

New president urges more people to join their local Rotary Club

5:40pm Wednesday 1st July 2009 in News

AN Alfrick man has urged more people to join their local Rotary Club after being named head of 55,000 members in the UK and Ireland.

David Fowler, a civil and structural engineer, is president of Rotary International for the country.

He said: “My job as president is to raise awareness of what Rotary is and what we do. We're not a secret society, and we don't have rituals or handshakes.

"We can define Rotary as being a global organisation of clubs that works at the local level."

As an example, Mr Fowler cited Ledbury Rotary Club's diabetes footcare project, which started when club member John Greedy visited Trinidad and Tobago nine years ago.

He found Rotarians there raising money for wheelchairs because of the high number of foot amputations; people with diabetes often get foot ulcers which, if untreated, lead to amputation.

"When Mr Greedy came back, Ledbury Rotary started a programme to train local doctors and nurses to treat ulcers," added Mr Fowler. "It's proved a real success and now they are looking to extend it to other Caribbean countries."

Rotary's international scope - it has clubs in some 200 countries - means it is able to co-ordinate projects on a grand scale, such as End Polio Now, which Mr Fowler will be keenly supporting during his year in office.

But Rotary also makes a difference at home: in the floods of 2007, clubs were in the forefront of aid and fundraising.

And its fundraising events, such as, in Malvern, the annual pancake race, become fixtures on the social calendar.

"We find that in the present climate, people are more eager to do something to help. This year, we've seen 18 new clubs form in the UK and Ireland, and we're anticipating 20 or 30 new ones next year.

“And with lively clubs existing in Malvern. Colwall and Ledbury, there's every opportunity to join up.”