Youth

This starts with Rotary’s well-known Dictionary 4 Life project, which is now in its 15^th year in the UK.   Our club presented over 220 of these dictionaries in the autumn to year 5 pupils of four local primary schools. 

At the secondary level, we have partnered with SATRO, a local education charity that provides services to schools focused on STEM (Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics) and other career skills.    Last year, we supported SATRO by volunteering Rotary members with professional skills for participation in school workshops that will provide pupils with stimulating vocational exercises and challenges. We also helped school pupils prepare for their careers by providing them with the opportunity to preparte their CVs and have practice interviews.

Another aspect of our work is to provide recognition to businesses and charities based in Shepperton and Sunbury for their achievements, particularly where their recent endeavours have provided notable service to the local communities and beyond.   For these awards, given around May/June, we seek nominations from our members and then judge, on merit alone, which nominees have been outstanding in their success over the past year.  For 2022/23 our award winners were:

• Nauticalia Ltd. Our business award award recognised Nauticalia’s recent innovative achievements by creating courtyard premises for eight thriving businesses including the always busy daytime indoor and outdoor Ferry Coffee Shop.
• Sunbury Millennium Embroidery Gallery This award recognised its gallery, exhibitions, teaching and social café, the charity’s recent acquisition of the widely acclaimed Diana Springall Collection of British Embroidery and their expansion plans that aspire to create a ‘National Centre for Embroidery’ in Sunbury.
• Jacqueline’s Garden This award recognises the work of Jacqueline Stanton and community volunteers to run a charity-based recycling store in Sunbury, a warm hub with coffee bar and plant centre.  Established in 2020, the charity has already supported refugee families, an orphanage in Kenya, a girls school in Nigeria, and very recently actively supported Ukraine with some 300 clothing packages, medical parcels and seven electricity generators.