Dryden Rotary Celebrates 80 Years Of Service

It’s a milestone year for the Rotary Club of Dryden.

2022 marks 80 years of service, fundraising and volunteering.

You won’t walk into a building in the City that the club hasn’t supported in one way or another, including the Dryden Regional Health Centre.

“The thing that stands out to me, when Rotary started 80 years go, it took on the responsibility for fundraising and organizing and everything that went in to developing the Dryden Hospital as it is up on Goodall Street now and the move to Red Cross,” explains current President of the club, Patty Vann. “Through the volunteer work of Rotarians at that point, they helped the community raise those funds and did a lot of work to get the hospital going.  It sort of set a goal or a standard for Rotarians to try to live up to ever since.”

Most recently, the club continues to serve and give back to the Dryden area even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’ve been fighting polio in the world internationally for 35 years and there are only five cases left in the world right now, so when COVID immunization clinics arose we stepped up to volunteer. We’ve put in over two thousand hours as volunteers at the mass clinics just here in Dryden since COVID began. It’s been fun to get out and help, see people and do more for our community.”

Rotary Radio Bingo on CKDR has been on the air for 18 years, a community fundraiser that has grown to become a Thursday night tradition in many homes across Northwestern Ontario.

“We’ve been able to raise 2.1 million dollars that has gone back into Dryden and the area. Through Food Banks, school bursaries, it supports a lot of our programs. Just since September during COVID, we were able to give back 22-thousand dollars to Food Banks and Christmas Cheer Organizations in the area and another 22-thousand to clinics in Dryden and Red Lake for equipment. Everybody comes together for bingo, the Rotarians, the listeners playing bingo at home and the tickets vendors to bring this great fundraiser to our community and put the money right back into the community.”

This year also marks Vann’s 10th year as a Rotarian.

“It makes me proud to be part of such a vibrant organization and to be able to partner with so many other people with the same passion and interest to give back to our community and help make our community and the world a better place. It’s a reason for getting up in the morning, that’s for sure.”

Vann adds her favourite highlight from  over the years has been her involvement in the Rotary Youth Exchange Program, which has brought high school students from around the world to Dryden and provided students from Dryden to live in another culture for an entire school year.