Deben Rotaract has been involved with many charitable causes over the years.

We've just started a major project for Sight Savers, aiming to raise £5000 through a serise of projects including the Rotary Mountain Challenge.

Here are just a few of the other projects we've been involved with recently.

	We make monthly payments to the Diane Fossy Gorilla Fund. Set up by Diane Fossy ('Gorillas in the Mist') in the late 70s for the conservation of gorillas and their habitats.
Closer to home, we also have a standing order with the Suffolk Wildlife Trust in the form of a sheep sponsership. Our sheep, Heather (pictured right), helps to naturaly create a perfect environment for a rich veriety of wildlife.
	This is one of our annual events. The famous Aldebrough Carnival. This is a fantastic evening of street displays, fireworks and a chinese lantern procession. Rotaract goes along to help the Rotary club, and carnival organisers, by taking buckets round to collect donations from the many people who go there. On average £2000 is raised for various Aldebrough charities.
Another annual events. A true collaberation between Rotary, Round Table and Rotaract. We join up with the Deben Rotary club and borrow the Round Tables Santa Sleigh. We then go touring round Woodbridge, Martlesham and surrounding areas for a couple of nights - not forgetting the Santa outfit - bringing smiles to many small faces. Money raised goes to the Rotary charity fun, with a donation to the Rotaract charity fund.
	Every year, Rotaract have helped out with the Martlesham Village Day - A one day mini Glastonbury. Rotaractors make up the bulk of the raffel ticket sellers, but are also found helping at the car boot sale, and assisting the bands. There's also a Rotaract presence at most of the committee meetings, offering ideas and help throughout the year. 2006 raised £2500 for each of the nominated charities, two of which are chosen each year. Currently East Anglia's Childen's Hospice, and Martlesham Responders.

Other events

As well as the events and charities listed above, Deben Rotaract attends many other fund raisers. Each year we go to a veriety of functions, including quizes (usualy very hard ones), Rotary charter nights (black tie events with excellent guest speakers), and race nights (betting on films of horse races). Most national Rotaract events usualy have a charitable aspect to them, with the Banbury Camping and RGBI Conference raising thousands of pounds each.

We have just been on our first Rotaract Superheroes Fancy Dress Pub Crawl around Ipswich. If anyone saw us out and about - easily spotted in the bright coloured cosutmes of Superman, Spiderman, Supergirl, Batman & Robin, and the slightly less coloured Zorro, then click back here in a couple of days and you can see all the exciting pictures we took. If you saw us, and have pictures, please email them to us so we can add them to our website.

We've raised money as part of Stroke Awareness Day (and encouraged quite a few people to take a quick, free, healthcheck). We've donated money to Riding for the Disabled, a forest rejuventation project, the Ipswich Holiday Home for Children and Beacon Hill School.

We don't just donate money, or attend fund-raisers. Over the years, we've helped renovate stables for Riding for the Disabled, we've decorated charity offices in Woodbridge and helped out at disabled sports days. We've parked cars and we've excavated childrens playgrounds. We've even marshalled at Ipswich carnival and Race for Life events. There's very little we arn't prepared to turn our hands to. Feel free to give us a challange!

Who decides where the money goes?

Very simply - the members. If you want to become a member, and are aged 18-30, we'd love to hear from you. Contact details are at the bottom of this page.
Likewise, if you represent a charity and would like our help - either in the form of money or manpower - we'd be very happy for you to get in touch.

Don't worry if your not local to Suffolk - there are Rotaract clubs all over the UK (and, for that matter, the rest of the world). Visit the Rotaract Great Britian and Ireland website.

We'd love to hear from you if you are interested in coming to an event, or if you are a local charity or community project and would like our assistance.

We'd also like to hear from you if you have any feedback on the web site.

Deben Rotaract contacts:
Email: enquiries@debenrotaract.org.uk
Call Dan on 07740165109 or Tash on 01473721153