Message of ‘positivity through choppy waters’
Maidenhead: Rotary club’s new president wants to connect people together
gional Nursing Officer for North East Thames.
She was director of the Florence Nightingale Foundation from 1996-2010, raising substantial funds to increase the number of scholarships for research, travel and leadership to develop nurses’ careers in the modern NHS. She remains an honorary vice-president of the organisation.
Despite taking over as Rotary president during the pandemic, Mary is determined to continue the organisation’s good work and called on members to be optimistic.
The club is currently holding meetings over Zoom and Mary says this is an example of how Rotary can adapt.
She said: “We are facing many changes in a challenging world but I want us all to travel with hope and positivity through these choppy waters. If something is not blatantly impossible there must be a way of doing it and that is the approach we must take as we look ahead.”
A Rotarian for five years, Mary’s plans for the coming year also include recruiting new members, increasing fundraising and continuing with the club’s support for overseas projects. Another key objective is to build on the club’s already extensive work with schools to help develop the potential of students.
Outgoing president Sean Egan, 55, said his successor would make a ‘formidable president’.
Reflecting on his year in office, he said: “It’s been a privilege to serve the club over what must have been one of the most unusual years in its long history. When my year started, no one could have imagined that we, and the wider world, would end up in a state of lockdown.”
Despite ending under lockdown, Sean’s year saw the club attract new members, run major fundraising events and donate considerable sums to charities such as Thames Hospice and Prostate Cancer UK.
After lockdown the club supported the Rotary in Maidenhead Covid-19 Response Project with funding of £4,500.
He added: “I am naturally disappointed the impact of Covid-19 has stymied so many of our plans in the latter part of my year and I’m saddened so many events have had to be cancelled. But equally I’m proud of what has been achieved and the way our club responded to the crisis.”
The club’s new presidentelect, who will take over from Mary next year, is Peter Hughes, 71.