GIVING FROM THE HEART
Windsor/Essex comes through with record fundraising for Rotary
The Rotary Club of Essex raised a record $220,000 to help villages in Ghana get nine water wells, washrooms and a new school. Nineteen Rotarians and volunteers with 53 hockey bags packed with school supplies, toys and clothing for 500 children met in west Windsor Tuesday afternoon before flying to Africa. “Canada’s oldest hockey team goes to Ghana,” Adrian Viselli joked Tuesday afternoon as the team gathered for a photo.
It will be the Windsor man’s first humanitarian trip to Ghana. Kim Spirou, the president of the Rotary Club of Essex and the team leader for the Rotary mission to Ghana, said the more than $220,000 raised was a record — about $20,000 more than was raised four years ago. “That’s huge. That’s a staggering number,” Spirou said Tuesday. “I think it’s a testament again to the generosity of this community. There’s something really special about people who give for projects in a developing country, because they know although they’ll likely never meet the people whose lives they have profoundly touched, they still do it and they give from the heart.”
The team will help drill nine water wells for remote villages in central Ghana in the Assin Bereku district. Spirou said the water in the villages is contaminated by sewage and residue from nearby mining activity. Ghana has experienced a drought, so clean water is the most valued thing the Rotarians can offer.
But backpacks filled with school supplies, clothes, toothbrushes and toothpaste and a toy each for 500 children will cause the most excitement.
“Children in Ghana rarely receive anything new, so this is a really special gift,” Spirou said. The Rotarians and volunteers will also build a sanitation facility with toilets, sinks and showers in a remote village, renovate an elementary school and build a new junior high school. Spirou, who has gone to Ghana for six years, said the hockey bags also are filled with medical supplies, orthopedic braces and crutches, uniforms, soccer balls, and the backpacks.
There are medical professionals going to help hospitals and clinics in Ghana providing health care, dental services and eyeglasses. The experience of being able to help in person is so rewarding, she said. “We’re often teary-eyed.” Spirou said a container with bulkier items already was shipped; Delta Air Lines allows mission team members to take the hockey bags as extra luggage on flights. Each of the 19 travellers had to pay for their own flights, accommodations and food (about $2,500 each) and raise extra money to be able to go with the team.
It’s the first trip to Ghana for Harrow Rotarian Bill Pook. He was going from -4C in Windsor to about 33C in Ghana.
The retiree said he’s looking forward to helping where needed over the next two weeks and giving out some of the 1,000 mosquito nets purchased to combat malaria, Africa’s top killer.
“We’re going to change the lives of so many people.”
That’s huge ($220,000 raised). That’s a staggering number. I think it’s a testament again to the generosity of this community.