South Africa: Blanket Drive (with RC Morningside)
This project provides decent quality and warm blankets to shelters for street children, orphanages, homes for abused women and children as well at emergency situations and disasters. Initiated in 2012 by RC Morningside, Johannesburg (Greta’s former Rotary Club) , it grew to the yearly participation of up to 26 South African clubs. RC Morningside alone distributed 40,000 blankets between the years 2012 to 2022.
In July 2023 RC Kingston-Frontenac took on the Blanket Drive as their first project for the Rotary year 2023/24, contributing $ 500 from our budget plus $100 from a member of the public. This amount has been transferred to South Africa. In October 2023, the Blanket Drive project was presented at the Regional Joint International Service Committee and in November, donation cards were printed to be used as Christmas “stocking-stuffers”, enabling members of clubs and the public to participate. In December, we published an article on the Blanket Drive in the District 7040 Bulletin and posted it on the K-F Club website. All this resulted in an impressive response from six other clubs, with club funds and public money combined: RC Kingston, RC Cataraqui-Kingston, RC Gananoque, RC Ottawa West, RC Lake Placid (USA), RC Cordeirópolis (Brazil). O, In the end, a grand total of $ 6,811.55 was collected for the South African Blanket Drive - a very successful multinational collaboration!