Community projects

The Rotary Club of Belconnen delivers projects as well as distributing grants to the local community. Projects are funded by Club members volunteering their time to run the weekly Trash and Treasure Market at the Jamison Centre in Macquarie since 1974. The markets are also an important community service, providing an opportunity for stallholders and patrons to come together.
 
Christmas hamper packing
Each year we pack over 300 Christmas hampers at a cost of nearly $30,000 and then distribute them to smaller community organisations in the Greater Belconnen region for their needier families.
 
Scholarships
We have and continue to support a number of different scholarships:
 
  • A $25,000 endowment with Bruce Hall College at the Australian National University to support undergraduate students.
  • Three $5,000 scholarships each year at the University of Canberra.
  • A $42,000 scholarship, in partnership with Australian Rotary Health, for medical research into Parkinsons.
Youth programs
Each year we provide $400 to every primary school across Belconnen as part of the Principals Discretionary Fund. We also sponsor young people to participate in a variety of Rotary youth programs. These include Rotary Youth Exchange Australia, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA), Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment (RYPEN), and the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF).
 
Rotary Collection of Australian Art

The Rotary Collection of Art by Young Australians was launched in 1986 at the National Gallery of Australia. The project aims to foster and encourage young, recently established and newly emerging Australian artists by providing funds for the acquisition of their works. The first acquisition as an untitled work by a then young Sydney artist, Tim Maguire.

The club continues to make an annual $2,500 contribution to the NGA to further grow this collection. Support from other Rotary clubs has also been provided with the collection continuing to expand, now encompassing a wide variety of mediums and artists.

 
Christmas hamper packing 2024 
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards
Trash and Treasure 50th year

Major projects

The Rotary Club of Belconnen has delivered major projects across Canberra over the past fifty years. These projects include:
 
  • $80,000 in 1977 for the construction of fourteen aged care units at Girrahween Lodge.
  • Funding to the Red Cross refrigerated van for the carriage of blood transportation within the ACT.
  • Provision of emergency accommodation (5 units and an associated communal TV lounge) at the Royal Canberra Hospital in 1983/84.
  • Funding in 1995/96 to establish Rotary Cottage at Calvary Hospital as emergency accommodation. The cottage was extended in 2005/06 to cater for a growing need by people having loved ones in the hospital that they could be close to. 
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