News and Events

Ukraine’s many challenges have drifted from the headlines. Rotary and Lions in Woking were recently reminded by the local Ukraine community organiser Irina Creeger that their needs are as great as ever. She said, “there is a desperate need for sleeping bags to support its troops on the front line”.
The two Rotary clubs in Woking set up an immediate appeal, which became inspired by the actions of Millets’ young sales assistant Sarah Clow. Hearing about the initiative, she volunteered to personally buy and donate a bag herself. Many donations from individual Rotarians and their clubs followed. Several members and local supporters also clambered into lofts and cupboards to retrieve redundant bags.
The Ukrainian community organisers in Woking, Rotarians from the two clubs involved, and staff from Woking Millets all met at the shop in The Peacocks to collect the sleeping bags together, with the result that 66 all-weather sleeping bags have now been dispatched to Ukraine’s front line. These will provide a few fortunate soldiers with some welcome comfort.
Woking District Rotary Club’s President David Clayfield said, “I am delighted that the two clubs working together have been able to respond so positively over a very short period”. In part this has been achieved through the generous discounts given by Millets local shop in Woking.  Rotarians had previously been very active in supporting the work of Souls For Good in collecting and shipping clothing, food and other necessary provisions to those in great need in Ukraine after the invasion in 2022. Subsequently Woking’s Rotarians provided financial support towards an International Rotary effort to enable pre-fabricated housing to be supplied and erected to some of those made homeless through bombing.