Young people

Rotarians get creative during COVID-19 lockdown

Rotarians get creative during COVID-19 lockdown

The four month pandemic has limited many Rotary activities, particularly fund-raising, but it has forced clubs to get creative.

Proud pet owners are being offered the chance to feature their furred and feathered friends in a unique virtual charity pet show.

Darlington Rotary is launching a photographic competition, where owners can send in a picture of their pets to be judged by award winning animal photographer, Tracy Kidd.

Entries cost £5 each and all the money raised will go to local charities hit by the COVID-19 crisis. There will be a winner and runner up.

Tracy, who lives in Darlington, has won many accolades for her animal studies, including a national Kennel Club Photo of the Year two years ago for her picture of dogs at work.

covid

Darlington Rotary is launching a photographic competition, where owners can send in a picture of their pets to be judged by award winning animal photographer, Tracy Kidd.

First prize for the virtual pet show is an 18 by 12-inch fine art print of their pet and £100 voucher towards a photo shoot or a photography lesson with Tracy. The runner up would receive a 12 by 8-inch print and a £50 voucher.

Organiser of the competition, Rotarian Sue Campbell, said: “While we still can’t get out in large groups to dog shows and other events, we thought it would be fun to see what photogenic pets are out there and give animal lovers the chance to help their community.

“It doesn’t matter what the animal is – dogs and cats may be popular of course, but pictures of any sort of pet will be welcome. However, as organiser, my own lovely dog will sadly be barred from winning”

While we still can’t get out in large groups to dog shows and other events, we thought it would be fun to see what photogenic pets are out there and give animal lovers the chance to help their community.”

Entrants are asked to send their pictures by email to pivotatrotary@aol.co.uk along with the name of the pet, what it is – e.g. dog, gerbil, snake – and the pet owner’s name, address, and phone number.

They need to also put the £5 per photo entry into Rotary’s charity account https://bit.ly/2CnAnpy referencing ‘pet show’.

The competition is for amateur photographers only. There is a no limit to the number of photos anyone enters and the deadline is end of August 2020. Winners will be featured in subsequent publicity.

Details are also on the Darlington Rotary Facebook page and Twitter feed @darlrotary.


Meanwhile in Kent, the Thanet Schools’ Young Artist’s Festival is a growing annual arts event organised by Margate Rotary in Kent.

Now in its 11th year, the art extravaganza, which had more than 40 local schools taking part, was under threat because of COVID-19.

In Kent, the Thanet Schools’ Young Artist’s Festival is a growing annual arts event organised by Margate Rotary in Kent.

However, the Rotary club and festival organisers managed to come up with a flexible solution to ensure the event went ahead.

Prizes were awarded in a number of categories, but rather than the traditional end of competition showcase at a Margate Sainsbury’s store, the entries have gone online.

The Margate School has organised a digital archive to highlight each of the age group winners, runners-up and those winning merit awards.

The Rotary club is working on a way to show the work physically in The Margate School exhibition spaces later this year, and also at the Primark building in Margate High Street from September 24th-28th.

The Rotary club is working on a way to show the work physically in The Margate School exhibition spaces later this year.”

Margate Rotary founded the festival in 2010 to give schoolchildren in Thanet a platform to show their artistic skills to the general public, at no cost to the schools except in school time.

Initially, only six schools in Thanet responded out of 54. However, from 2016 the annual exhibition has been held at Sainsbury’s Superstore in Westwood Cross Foyer with 49 schools and colleges taking part.

www.themargateschool.com/tms-cloud-gallery