COMMUNITY PROJECTS

Rotary's seven areas of focus are important aspects of "Service Above Self". From promoting peace, fighting disease, tackling environmental issues, water sanitation, education and literacy, maternal and child healthcare, and community economic development

Projects are organised by Southampton Solent Rotary to provide community activities, raise funds and awareness for local charities. As part of an ongoing environment project we ask our members to collect their old medication foil packs, ink cartridges, spectacles, and milk bottle tops. These are then recycled at the appropriate locations, be it pharmacies or given to charities.

New Defibrillators

Saving Lives

Defibrillators are vital when someone has a Cardiac Arrest.

Rotary has purchased and installed two new defibrillators with funds raised at Rotary events.

The defibrillators are located at:

Locks Heath Shopping Village SO31 6DX

Tel:- 01962 868545

At the Age Concern Hampshire building on Centre Way

and at

The Concorde, Eastleigh SO50 9HQ

Tel:- 023 8061 3989

On the front of the building, Stoneham Lane, Eastleigh.

_________________

Each will help save lives in the local community.

Ensure you know where it is.
Visit and read the instructions on how to access it.
The speed you take to access it is vital.

Conservation Work
Southampton Old Cemetery

We have been volunteering with the Friends of Southampton Old Cemetery since 2021, engaging in conservation work, uncovering graves, and removing undergrowth and ivy from on and around graves.

27 acres of the old cemetery, opened in 1846, are regularly maintained by the Friends, and the history resting in peace within the grounds holds many stories. None more so that the Titanic graves and the Belgian WW1 soldiers graves. But looking at other graves, and a little research into the names on headstones proves that there is a fascinating story behind everyone.

Over the months we have removed ivy from headstones, trimmed back overgrown brambles and weeds, uprighted fallen headstones, and uncovered forgotten graves lost beneath encroaching shrubs.

The work is very rewarding both personally and from the conservation perspective. Areas have been opened up and graves made visible again for family members to pay their respects.

Crocus planting

Purple4Polio is one of Rotary's on-going disease prevention and community projects. Every year we locate an area of grass in the Southampton area and plant purple crocus bulbs ready for spring and autumn blooming.

We also work with local Southampton schools and give them 1000 crocus corms each to plant in their school grounds, and we go along to help where needed.

NHS "Thank You" banners

At a time when the "Clap for the NHS" was still going strong in 2020, new Southampton West Rotarian Pete Green decided to make some "Thank You NHS" banners which could be purchased by the public for display outside their homes.

Handmade by Pete, the banners raised £1,760 in sales with a further £340 in donations. If you saw them whilst driving around Southampton, well now you know where they came from!

Christmas Hampers for the elderly

Begun in 2020 as a joint project between Southampton and Southampton Magna Rotarys, the Christmas Hampers provide some festive treats to over 350 people across the Southampton communities each year.

In partnership with Iceland Foods who provide the food, we send hampers to:

We hope to find more elderly communities in Southampton in need of something special at Christmas. If you know of anyone or a group, get in touch!

Spitfire Makers

Our Club's 'flagship' project for 2021 was to support The Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust.

The Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust - Building Spitfires Without A Factory

Two of the aims of The Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust are:

To commemorate sites of Spitfire production and the people who became Spitfire Makers in Southampton, Hampshire and other locations by producing memorial plaques and/or education boards to inform the public about these sites.
To preserve the WW2 Spitfire Makers heritage for future generations by raising awareness of the locations of the dispersed facilities that produced Spitfires from 1936 onwards.