It was all smiles when members of Dukinfield and Stalybridge Rotary Club distributed Easter Fruit and Veg boxes to seniors in the local community. After a busy evening at Ashton Golf Club where socially distanced Rotary club members assembled the dozens of boxes to be handed out, the pressure was on to get all the boxes delivered before Easter.

First stop was St. George’s House, Stalybridge where Housing Manager Ann Broadley was delighted to receive twenty boxes for the residents there before further deliveries were made to Mosscare St Vincent and Oakwood Nursing Home.

Dukinfield and Stalybridge Rotary Club Membership Development officer Brendan Lomas takes up the story:
‘When we were planning our Rotary Easter Project, we were keen to extend the initiative beyond just the local children. We recognised that one of the groups in our community who had been hardest hit by the pandemic were the seniors. Many of them had shielded for most of the last year due to health conditions whilst others who were not shielding nonetheless had led very isolated lives when they stayed at home during the lockdowns.

Loneliness amongst older people in our communities is a problem at the best of times and the coronavirus lockdowns has made that even worse. We wanted to do something to show these older people that they had not been forgotten, and that their community cared about them.

When we went round and distributed the boxes, we were overwhelmed with just how much they were appreciated, both by those receiving them and by their community support workers.

We’ve all seen how the pandemic has brought out the best in many people with record numbers of volunteers coming forward. That has been the experience in our club too. Despite being unable to meet face to face and conducting our meetings virtually we have been able to continue, and indeed extend, our work in the community by adopting Covid safe practices like mask wearing and social distancing. That’s perhaps why, this year, we’ve seen a record number of new members joining our club.

They have all enjoyed getting stuck in with our annual programme of community projects like this Easter project. Dukinfield and Stalybridge Rotary hasn’t been held back by the pandemic – far from it – we’ve gone from strength to strength!’