From the very beginning of the COVID crisis, Axminster Rotary Club realised that its main fundraising events would be in jeopardy.

Its annual charity golf day in Lyme Regis was called off, the Axe Vale Festival was cancelled and Stockland Fete, where members help every year, likewise.

But fortunately, the club has still been able to assist a number of good causes from its charity fund.

One of the club's early actions during the pandemic was to contribute £300 towards the cost of transporting an X-ray machine that had been donated by the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital to Kagando Hospital in Uganda.

Thanks to the fundraising efforts of Anna Crabbe, the machine is now providing much-needed services in the hospital.

Next it was the Axe Vale Netball Club, which received £400 from the Rotary Club. This went towards supporting their membership, which ranged in eight from eight to 80, to keep interest going during the crisis.

The netball club is currently adding up all its individual members' walking miles, with the aim of completing the distance from Axminster to Australia, and hey have already reached Malta.

The Rotary Club was also very pleased to assist the 1st Axminster Scout Group with a £200 donation.

Scout Leader Linda Green said the group was very grateful for the support, with the Scouts and Cubs continuing to meet online and face-to-face when permitted over the past year.

They have carried on earning badges from home, achieved a socially-distanced hike up Golden Cap, and the Beavers produced some craftwork for Christmas.

The Rotary Club also gave a £200 donation to Axminster Town Youth Football Club.

Andy Hurford, secretary and chairman, thanked the Rotary Club for its support and said the donation would enable them to buy much-needed training balls, bibs and other equipment.

Despite the pandemic, the Rotary Club was able to carry out one of its regular activities in distributing a Dictionary 4 Life to every year 6 pupil in his district.

The dictionaries were given to children at the two primary schools in Axminster, as well as schools in All Saints, Hawkchurch, Kilmington, Membury, Musbury, Shute and Chardstock.

The schools said they were very much appreciated and particularly helpful to the pupils who were having to home school during lockdown.

Normally, the club would have been helping Axminster Cancer Research UK fundraisers with their collections outside Tesco, but this was not possible so it provided a £500 donation instead.

At the end of 2020, Rotarians were very grateful to receive a total of £1,055 from fundraisers in Colyton, which has been sent on to Shelterbox, which provides emergency assistance across the globe and has been in increased demand during the spread of COVID.

The Axminster club were also able to donate £500 to the Rotary Foundation, which is the global fund of Rotary International that provides millions of pounds humanitarian assistance every year.

The fund's most well known project is EndPolio Now, which started 40 years ago and, working with the World Health Organisation, Rotary has succeeded in virtually eliminating the disease.

Rotarians across the world have over the years raised more than £500million for this project alone.

A spokeperson said: "Axminster Rotary Club is very pleased that they were able to help so many good causes and we congratulate all the dedicated people in our community that have worked so hard to keep their clubs, charities and schools going in such unprecedented times."

If anyone would like to know more about Rotary or would be interested in joining, contact Martin King on 01460 220319.

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