The first link is a video we had sent last year to louisville Rotaract club After they had sent us a Video to wish us luck on starting our Rotaract Group their video is the second link  so enjoy.
 
http://video.google.co.uk/googleplayer.swf?docid=2746787017046376770&hl=en&fs=true

http://video.google.co.uk/googleplayer.swf?docid=5234470630463510328&hl=en&fs=true“    
 
Best Wishes.
 
 Vice President

 Patrick O’Reilly 

Rotaract club are proud to announce that on the 22nd of march 2009, they will be hosting a rotaract district meeting at the Duke of Edinburgh building at 2pm. There will be plenty of food and refreshments for you all to enjoy!

Also Rotaract will be hosting a Pub Quiz on Tuesday 31st of March 2009 at the Duke of Yorke. Doors open at 7pm until 12pm it will be 3 pound per person and between 2-5 people per team. There will be plenty of prizes to be won but most importantly it is to raise money for Leukemia so see you all there!

 

Belfast Rotaract has added a brand new office and member to its committee: Project Officer Michael!

Michael got involved with Rotaract after taking part in Belfast Rotary Club’s Towards a Better Understanding Programme, and he is also trying to get an Interact Club set up in his schoo, RBAI.

Projects Officer Michael, looking dapper, in a field.

Hello Everyone!

Just a little notice to let you all know that on Thursday 18th December, Belfast Rotaract Club will be taking to the streets of Belfast city centre to sing carols in aid of the Morning Star Homeless Shelter. We’ll be all around town, so if you’ve some shopping to do try and make it a priority that day and come support us, join in, make fun of us…whatever: Just hand over your spare change!

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

This week, members of Belfast Rotaract were more than happy to lend their services to Belfast Rotary, who required help in selling ballots for a prize draw to win a car, the proceeds of which are to go to the Polio Plus programme which aims to eradicate Polio around the world. The ballots were being sold in Belfast City Airport and in the Abbeycentre, and if you missed your chance to buy one, leave us a comment and we’ll arrange to get some to you! Remember: If you’re not in, you can’t win!

President Laura persuades DFM Martin McGuinness to buy a ballot for Polio Plus

I’m sure the Deputy First Minister didn’t appreciate my chasing him out of the airport armed with my ballot book and bucket full of change, but he took it all in his stride! Just one of the many generous travelers who bought ballots that evening – in total Rotary collected about £470! A good nights work!

After a tough year for the club which saw most of its members leave the country, Belfast Rotaract is now back and ready for action. After 3 meetings we have established a core group of very enthusiastic members and have a packed agenda for the year ahead.
At our first meeting we elected our committee for the year:

President: Laura Garland

Vice-President: Patrick O’Reilly

Secretary: Siobhan Lappin

Treasurer: Lyn Mitten

Since then we have worked hard at getting an agenda for the upcoming months organised. A few of the items we have planned for the year include running the Race for Life in order to raise money for research, volunteering at some community events including a Christmas dinner for the elderly, and we hope to have a Christmas themed buskfest in Belfast City Centre in the run up to Christmas to raise funds for the homeless.

Oh, and our Charter has finally found a (hopefully!) permanent home in the HQ of the Duke of Ed, where we hold our fortnightly meetings. Mr Rainey very kindly donated some wall space to us and now it hangs proudly for all to see!

Rotaract 2008 proudly show off their charter

The Rotaract Club was founded in 2006 by a crack team of Rotaract enthusiasts, namely myself, present Treasurer Lyn Mitten, past vice-President Tom McShane and Ambassadorial Scholar Christopher P. Cunningham who served as Secretary for the club’s first year.

And what a year it was!

Aside from getting the club off the ground and attracting new members, we even managed to get it chartered in March, which was a big night and huge success for our new club and for our sponsoring club, the Rotary Club of Belfast.

On top of all that we even managed to fit in some volunteering and fundraising activites, including:

- Helping out with the restoration of the SS Nomadic, Titanic’s little sister ship which ferried first and second class passengers to board the ship at Cherbourg

Rotaract and VSB members at SS Nomadic restoration

- Taking part in Rotary Belfast’s kid’s out day, where we accompanied disabled children for a fun afternoon trip to Portaferry Aquarium

Shooting pool

- Showing the TABU exchange students a fun night out in Norn Iron with bowling, pool and general larking about at Dundonald Icebowl.

A few of our members joined the TABU students on a trip to Dublin to meet with the Irish President, Mary McAleese.

- Scaling Slieve Donard mountain in order to raise money for the neo-natal unit at the Royal Maternity Hospital in Belfast. We raised over £700 which will go directly to providing equipment for caring for the sick babies.
Also we initiated a club link programme where we as a Rotaract Club attend as a group once a month the Rotary meetings held by our sponsoring club. This way we are able to see Rotary in action and get ideas for our own activites or offer our help for anything that the Rotary Club might have on their agenda. We set up a link with Chris’ own Rotaract club back in Kentucky which made for the exchange of some hilarious video messages.

Welcome to the new blog for the Rotaract Club of Belfast! Newly revitalised and ready for action, Belfast Rotaract meets fortnightly at the HQ of the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme in Belfast. We have a full programme of volunteering and fundraising activities planned for this academic year, and hope to make a real difference in our community. If you’re interested in joining don’t hesitate to contact us at belfastrotaract@googlemail.com