By Kath Gannaway
Seven Healesville sporting clubs received a financial boost at the Rotary Club of Healesville’s June dinner meeting.
The dinner was part of the club’s annual distribution of funds from Rotary activities and events held during the year.
Healesville’s pony, cricket, swimming, soccer, football netball and tennis clubs and the Yarra Glen Junior Football Club shared a pool of $7500, with the money going to support a wide range of projects from new uniforms and equipment to a television for performance review.
Rotary’s director of Community Services, Dr Ian Tinney thanked the Rotary team behind the successful Dog’s Day Out event which, he said, raised “a whole pot of money” that they were able to share around the community.
He said Rotary was very keen on supporting the health of the community as a whole and added that keeping people fit was an important way of achieving that.
“Sports clubs are an integral part of any community, and certainly that’s the case in Healesville and Yarra Glen.
“If we didn’t support such an important part of the community, I think we would be missing out,” Dr Tinney said.
Soccer Club representative Sarah Morton said the support of organisations such as Rotary was important to their club, and to all sporting clubs.
“Running community sporting clubs depends on many people giving of their time and effort, and money,” Ms Morton said.
“Our coaches committee and parents already contribute so much; this donation means less extra work on fund-raising we need to do.
“It means more time for us to focus on running the club and providing opportunities to our members. It’s so greatly appreciated.”
She said for the soccer club, the donation would help with equipment costs and help to keep costs down for the families involved.
