Rotarians were part of a group of volunteers who assisted in the preparation of food packages for distribution to schools and community organizations across the region as part of the Food Sharing Project. Click here to read the full article that appeared in the Kingston Whig Standard on Oct 23, 2023.
Items collected by the Kingston Rotaract Club Clothing Drive for Refugees
Rotary Octoberfest
Rotarians sorting First Book Canada books for distribution
Rotarians volunteering at Easter Seals Telethon
Assisting the local COVID-19 immunization clinic at the INVISTA Centre
Martha's Table receiving Pig Roast food
Learning Circle at Loughborough PS
Robinson Community Garden
Packing shoeboxes for Tipi Moza
Seaway West Rotarians volunteering at Kingston Fall Fair 2023
The main goal of our Kingston Rotaract Club this year is to give support to all refugees in our community. Beginning on July 12th,, we began a close collaboration with KEYS, a registered charity that is doing an amazing job in engaging and supporting newcomers in Kingston.
Some of the refugee families, especially the ones coming from Ukraine, arrived here during the summer/fall with as little as a backpack due to the hurry at which they had to leave their home country. Being an international student myself and having moved from a much warmer country to Canada, I learned on my skin how tough Canadian winter can be if someone is not well prepared. For this reason, our Club had to help solve this problem!
The call went out last spring for volunteers to manage the gates at the Kingston Fall Fair. Not surprisingly, the Rotarians of Seaway West were eager to support the annual event. Though the learning curve was steep, they managed well with the patience and poise for which Rotarians are known.
The Kingston Fall Fair has been in existence since 1830 and it is one of the longest running fairs in the country. The 2022 version occurred between September 15 – 18 and was the first since COVID-19 shut down the event two years ago. The volunteer coordinator and her team retired and so the Fair Board President was looking for a new volunteer team. Rotarian Darlene Clement (Kingston), who sits on the Fair Board, suggested that Rotarians might be willing to take on the task. A small committee of Rotarians met with the Fair Board executive and later agreed to take on the volunteer effort. And it was no small task! In fact, attendance at the fair was up 60% over the last pre-pandemic event (2019)!
Once again, the Rotary Clubs of Kingston brought a little holiday cheer to thousands of children. Our annual book distribution occurred between Nov. 23, 2021 and Nov. 25, 2021, thanks to our volunteers and partners. It was an overwhelming success.
The hard work and support of Kingston Rotarians and friends came to fruition on September 16 as the annual Pig Roast came to a close. It was yet another example of the dedication of our six clubs coming together to assist our community in its time of need.
Over the past month, we have been harvesting corn and potatoes from the Robinson Community Garden,
selling tickets for the virtual event and seeking donations to the United Way for the new Community Food
