Readers of this blog may remember that, back in December and January, Deeside was affected by serious flooding. A few weeks ago, I was able to let you have good news about one business that is fighting back.
At the time of the flood, I drew attention to a fund that was launched (unfortunate choice of word) by the Aboyne Rotary Club, and I know that a number of followers of this blog contributed to it. This fund has subsequently helped many people made homeless by flooding and I am reproducing below a letter from the President of the Club which I think is self-explanatory:
Rotary Club of Aboyne and Upper Deeside
Ballater and Deeside Flood Relief Fund Newsletter
This newsletter is to give a brief summary of what Aboyne and Upper Deeside Rotary have been able to do, over the last six months, with the generosity of so many individuals, groups and organisations, to help people affected by the devastating floods that hit the Deeside area at the end of last year.
As well as helping with the emergency relief effort in many practical ways we, within days, launched a fund-raising campaign to help the flood victims of Upper Deeside. The Ballater and Deeside Flood Relief Fund has to date raised over £75,500 and disbursed over £56,500; assisting 109 flood-affected households from Kincardine O’Neil to Braemar.
People throughout Deeside and beyond organised fundraising events, made generous personal donations and contributed to collections hosted by shops and businesses. In addition almost £18,000 came from twenty seven Rotary Clubs from all over Britain, and nearly £12,000 came from supporters of the “Hope Floats – Deeside” Facebook page.
We set up a simple, responsive, totally confidential and non-judgemental process to provide help to people whose homes (principal residence) had been flooded and who had lost possessions.
Many people we meet with have said, touchingly, that it is good to know that somebody cares and the numbe
rs of thank-you letters bear witness to the very real gratitude from residents to a rapid response for emergency relief funds. The Club has been awarding grants of upwards of £200 according to the amount of damage suffered with the vast majority of grants for £500 as losses suffered have been extensive, especially in Ballater.
The community spirit shown by, and for, Deesiders is second to none. The willingness to help those who are in trouble is quite inspiring, and many volunteers are working as hard now as they were immediately after the flood event.
With over 400 households and many small businesses affected in our area, it is our intention to keep fund-raising for our Flood Fund, as many families flooded out of their homes are still in temporary accommodation. The Flood Fund is also supporting local projects which will benefit the regeneration and resilience of the communities and economy of Upper Deeside.
Aboyne and Upper Deeside Rotary would like to give heartfelt thanks to everyone who has directly or indirectly contributed to the Flood Fund and helped the people of Deeside during this difficult time
Ruth Powell
(President – Rotary Club of Aboyne and Upper Deeside)
1st July 2016
As you can see from the above the Fund is now directing its resources towards local regeneration and resilience projects which will be of benefit to all but have no other source of funding.
Finally, I should say that the fund is still open for donations and if you wish to donate, the bank details are:
Clydesdale Bank, Aboyne,
Sort code: 82-60-17 Account no 20104922 Relief Fund Account