Shrewsbury rotarians pledge nearly £2,500 to support projects

Shrewsbury Severn Rotary Club is to allocate £500 if the family of Oliver Burrows, 18, of Bicton Heath, is able to raise half the cost themselves.

Members were told that the special wheelchair would help Oliver, who suffers from bilateral cerebral palsy, to participate in day to day work on a horticultural course at Derwen College, Oswestry.

The family of Oliver, who is studying for a degree, was said to be trying to raise half the cost of £15,000 for the specialised wheelchair which would run over rough ground.

Members were told the power wheelchair would improve Oliver’s lifestyle and would be life changing.

Shrewsbury Severn Rotary Club has agreed to provide support, but the finance is conditional upon the actual purchase of the wheelchair.

Oliver and his parents are being supported by the Caudwell Children’s Charity which requires half the cost is raised by the family.

The club is also supporting a new project, ‘Music in Homes and Hospitals,’ with £150 which is the cost of a 75 minute session.

Rotary will trial the project as a one-off at Montgomery House Care Home, Sundorne Road, Shrewsbury, which has 90-plus residents.

Members heard that professional musicians visit a home or hospital and provide live music to a group of people.

Significant

Rotarian John Yeomans, chair of Shrewsbury Severn Rotary Community and Vocational Committee, told members that Montgomery House was ‘excited’ about the possibility of the project being delivered to them.

He said: “The project can be extended in the future to day centres to merged groups of older people. It provides good communication and significant stimulation to these people.”

The club has once again agreed to support Minsterley Eisteddfod with a donation of £300 towards prizes.

Rotarian Yeomans also outlined a scheme for phone boxes telling members that BT is disposing of phone boxes and offering them to communities for different uses.

He said the club was interested in securing one of these phone boxes to place a defibrillator in it. He had made an initial online application for one of two phone boxes in Abbey Foregate.

“The reason for their release is because BT say no-one is using them,” he told members. Community Heartbeat Trust, which has strong links with Rotary, would help to adapt a phone box.

They would provide the defibrillator and guidance on how to manage the phone boxes over a four year commitment. The club would be expected to open and maintain a phone box with a defibrillator – linked to the Ambulance Service - at a cost of £1,400.

BT, on request, would leave the telephone in an operating condition. The trust would keep the equipment in order. When a defibrillator was used, there would be an on-going cost of £40.

“That’s £40 to save someone’s life,” said John, whose proposal to support the idea and progress the project with other Rotary clubs was backed by members.