More than £9,000 was raised for local good causes from Dorchester Casterbridge Rotary Club's 2020 Christmas draw.

The annual event has been running since 2004 and this year has been particularly hard on groups as fundraising has been incredibly difficult.

The draw involves various charities or groups selling raffle tickets, with every penny raised by an organisation going back to it, together with any bonus from the Rotary club.

Sponsors - Dorchester Timber, Meyers estate agents, Brewery Square and Edwards and Keeping accountants - donated around £1,400 in prize money and a total of £7,880 worth of raffle tickets were sold.

Vanessa Lucas, president of the Rotary club, has thanked all the groups taking part for the work they have done in making the Christmas draw a success.

She said: "When we set off, we couldn't believe it could happen and it's been a fantastic year again.

"Our club strives to make a real contribution to the lives of others, nationally and internationally, and the Christmas draw is just one of our projects.

"I think it's a way we can help different groups in our community raise some funds without any cost to themselves, which is what were about as Rotary, helping others do well."

Seventeen organisations, charities and groups came together over Zoom to thank the Rotary club for their donations from the proceeds, to say a bit about the group and what the money would go towards.

Dorchester Trust for Counselling and Psychotherapy

"We've been running since 2005 and our purpose is to support local people who might be struggling and need counselling or psychotherapy but can't afford to pay for it privately.

"We have found that, like everybody I'm sure, we have struggled financially with the pandemic, one of the reasons being that because we've had to move our work to online counselling rather than face to face, we felt it fair to ask for clients for half of what they would normally donate.

"The way that we work is that clients would donate what they can reasonably afford, which ranges from £5 to £15 per session, and then we top up the rest for the counsellor so they get a minimum of £30, which is a lot less than they would get anyway.

"So, our raffle money, which were very grateful for, will help with that shortfall.

"As an emergency response to the pandemic as well, we've set up a key worker counselling scheme which offer six free sessions to local key workers. That's been amazingly successful, it's been going since February last year and we've seen over 50 people so far.

"We're very, very grateful to have had the support from the raffle and were very grateful for the funds, particularly this year when things have been very challenging."

Dorchester Opportunity Group

"We are a specialist preschool setting based in Maiden Castle Road in The Prince of Wales Preschool centre.

"We support children aged two to four with a developmental delay, whether that be autism or different forms of a disability.

"Were able to give a higher level of support than children might get in other mainstream settings, were a smaller group and that suits a lot of children.

"We are hoping to use the money from the raffle for some new resources for our creative activities because that is often the avenue a lot of our children really are interested in - messy play, painting, play doh, all those sorts of things and we've got resources that are years old and we just want to update all of those. Thank you for allowing us to take part in the raffle again.

"It's been a challenge this year because of Covid, our numbers have been up and down and more and more is being asked of settings like us, early years and actually as a sector we feel we've been hung out to dry a little bit. We've been there for our families the whole way through."

Dorchester Arts

"We're the arts organisation based in the Corn Exchange and we put on a programme of events throughout the year, we do about 100 ticketed performances throughout the year and have audiences of about 10,500 in an average year. Last year was definitely not an average year but the year before that was the level we were working at.

"We programme in all sorts of other venues during the summer, into outdoor venues but also into some wonderful venues that have specific characteristics like St Mary's for classical music.

"Alongside that we also run a participation programme. We are going to expand that area of our work, we want to make it more of what we do, health and wellbeing and the arts are going to be incredibly important as we recover from covid. So that's what our money is going towards, it's going to go towards supporting our participation programme in health and wellbeing.

"Covid's been a huge challenge for us, we had to close our doors in March last year and we haven't really been able to open since, partly though because we brought forward some plans for repairs at the Corn Exchange. That's saving us being closed further down the line.

"We've got more exciting news that were going to be announcing soon about upgrades to the auditorium at the Corn Exchange and plans for the theatre at Thomas Hardye School, so watch this space.

"Were hugely grateful to Rotary again for having been able to take part in the raffle and that money will go to good use with our participation programme, so thanks a lot."

Home Start West Dorset

"We believe that parents play a key role in giving children a happy and secure childhood and we strive to ensure every parent is given the support they need to give children the best start in life.

"We look to support parents as they learn to cope, improve confidence and build better lives for their children.

"Although due to the current pandemic, government guidelines and our own risk assessments, we've had to stop our normal face to face direct work with families, but we have continued to offer support. We've been able to listen and reassure parents, the volunteers have been there when parents have had to cope with ongoing national changes and lockdown.

"Through regular contact with a nominated volunteer, the families have been able to access food banks and other specialist support as well as being encouraged to get out of the home for fresh air and exercise.

"During the time we could offer face to face socially distanced outside visits, we were able to encourage the parents to go outside the family home with the children fir exercise and fresh air.

"We've had some really positive feedback about the support we've given and I would like to thank everybody that has supported the raffle to enable us to get that funding. So, thank you and we will go on to use that funding to make sure we are here for families in the future."

Volunteers in Kenya

"We have been working with a community which is about four hours north of Nairobi, it's a poor community.

"One of our main aspects is working with children, we support the schools, we have a sponsorship programme where individuals provide money so children receive food and porridge while they go to school and every often that's the only meal a child will get.

"We started in 1999 with digging the foundations of a health centre for the very needy people in the community and that health centre is now a thriving medical hub.

"We link schools in the UK with schools in the area in Kenya, we have a special affinity with children with special needs and we started a special needs unit in one of the primary schools and Casterbridge work with another special needs unit near the foothills of the mountain.

"We have many challenges at the moment because obvously we can't travel to Kenya, we have some very trustworthy people out there so were able to keep the projects going. Who knows when we'll be able to go there again and like everybody else, our fundraising has been greatly reduced and we are also very grateful to the Rotary club for this boost to our funds.

"The funds, we've used some already in the Donna Kelly special needs unit and were keeping some for emergencies. For example, a couple of days ago I had heard a young boy had broken his arm, a very, very poor family that can't afford to go to the hospital to get it plastered, so some of the funds will go there and another young boy has kidney stones and has been in hospital now for nine days and there is no way the family can pay the hospital bill, so were using some of the funds for emergencies."

Chesil Sailing Trust

"Thank you to the Rotary club for your support through the Christmas draw.

"The Chesil Sailing Trust has been in operation since 2003 and we've been giving young people the opportunity of participating in sailing and other water sports.

"Our biggest programme is called sail for a fiver and that's aimed at young people in their final year of primary school, they get a half day sailing session in sailing dinghies for which they pay £5 and our charity picks up the rest of the cost.

"We've had 25,000 young people from Dorset through that programme so far and in a normal year we will take about 2,500 young people each year.

"Sailing teaches self-reliance, self-confidence, resilience and the importance of team work and we have a number of programmes also for secondary schools. One of those is From Small to Tall where we give young people the opportunity of sailing on tall ships, either for day sails or a week-long voyage.

"The pandemic has meant that most of our activities for last year had to be cancelled and were very conscience of the effect of the pandemic of the mental health of young people and so we would very much like to run a tall ship class this year and if we do then the money raised through the Christmas draw will go towards the sailing programme.

"So, thanks once again on behalf of the young people who will benefit from those programmes."

Casterbridge Male Voice Choir

"We are a charity and we give concerts to raise money for a wide range of different local causes. Although we haven't travelled abroad for a few years we have made many trips in the past. Our musical director is Julia McFarlane and we have over 25 members.

"Our challenge is membership - we are an ageing group and were always looking for new members.

"We sell the draw tickets in order to raise funds to run the choir, new music and that sort of thing and publicity but all the money that we make from the concerts goes to the local charities.

"We have not met as a choir or socially for that matter for a year or so and we look forward to our first meeting again, with some apprehension."

Dorchester Family Support

"Our main objective is to help families during the summer and Christmas school holidays for those families who are in receipt of free school meals.

"Over this last Christmas we provided over 200 hampers to these families and for the first time we also worked alongside Dorchester Town Council and the mayor to provide a small cash gift to people to buy small presents for their children in our local shops.

"We are now planning what we're going to be doing in the summer of this year, it's a bit more complicated because we can't quite work out what the Government's going to do and how we might dovetail in with that, but we've certainly got the money when the plans are in place to continue to help those families.

"We would like to say thank you to the rotary and Janet Hewitt who sold the tickets on our behalf so we are grateful for your support."

Milborne St Andrew First School

"We're a small school, we've got just over 60 pupils aged four to nine and this year has been quite different from any other year as I'm sure you can all appreciate.

Previously we would have raised our money through summer fairs and Christmas activities, engaging with the parents, but we haven't been able to do that, a lot of people have been furloughed or made redundant so parents have not been quite so forthcoming and active with our fundraising. Saying that, the sale of the raffle tickets did go just as well as any other year, which is quite surprising, we had to adjust the way we did it but people still got on board with it and it was all for a good cause and we are incredibly grateful.

"We feel very unworthy compared to some of the other charities being supported here who are all doing amazing jobs and everybody has had their own challenges and hopefully we're on to better things now looking forward, life will start again and life will go on so thank you for the opportunity to raise some more funds."

Dorset Mind

"In June 2016, we were in a tiny office with one room, no kitchen and a team of eight people, but the important factor was the passion and the vision of this team to help support the mental health of Dorset.

"At this point Dorset Mind was helping approximately 500 adults per year, predominantly in Bournemouth. Fast forward four years and we now have a team of over 60 staff and 200 volunteers and we're directly supporting more than 20,000 people per year county wide with their mental health.

"Back in 2017, Dorset Mind introduced a fortnightly wellbeing support group in Dorchester and since then we've been actively supporting the community in Dorchester with several mental health services, including befriending, group support, working with schools, a weekly young person's support group and one to one mental health services for young people.

"Our most recent Dorchester project saw us pilot an eco-therapy gardening group in collaboration with Meyers estate agent called the Gap Project.

"The global pandemic has led to many physical, mental and emotional challenges for us all, but Dorset Mind quickly realised the impact of Covid-19 on people's mental health and within days of the first lockdown we transferred our services to a remote format, online or by phone. This ensured continuity of really essential support of those vulnerable or at risk of poor mental health. We continued to support the mental health of residents throughout this difficult period to meet the growing demand for mental health help within our communities.

"Additionally, we've run online webinars to help people cope with the impact of covid-19, covering subjects such as working from home, grief and loss, loneliness and anxiety.

"Furthermore to that, we've just introduced an accredited mental health first aid training course and I myself have taken part in the course and can personally say I am feeling more able to confidently support others with their mental health, especially at a time like this where so many people are suffering mental health issues.

"None of this would have been possible without the support and fundraising of community organisations such as the Rotary so thank you so much for helping us grow our vision of mental health support for all in Dorset."

Sherborne and Yeovil Link Chernobyl Children's Lifeline

"Were one of approximately 60 links across the country working with a charity that was set up in the early 90s to bring children to our local areas to recuperate from living in the after effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

"The children we bring are the children of parents who were children themselves when the nuclear disaster occurred but we know that the radiation they are constantly exposed to living in, the contaminaed food and water they drink, is going to be present and is going to affect the gene structure of their bodies for another 450 to 600 years.

"Many of the children born in Belarus and Ukraine suffer from physical deformities, poor health, heart disease and the children we bring are aged between 9 and 12, specifically because that's the age when these children's bodies are at high risk of developing leukaemia thyroid cancers and a variety of other cancers.

"In the four weeks we have them here, they would on average put on two kilograms of weight, but the most important thing is because they're eating and drinking uncontaminated food and water, radiation is completely eradicated from their bodies, they go home and children who have had coughs and colds and bronchitis, pneumonia on a frequent basis, go home and don't suffer any ill effects of any ill health for many months or a year or two after they go home.

"While they're here we try and give them a holiday, they stay with close families who are volunteers and we get them out in the fresh air as much as we can. They go to the beach and they have never seen the sea before because they are from a land-locked country. They all come from very poor, home backgrounds and we take them to the dentist we get them to the optician and we just generally try and give them the holiday of a lifetime but the main aim is to improve their health and to improve their immune systems.

"We're very, very grateful for the money we have received, our fundraising like everyone else has been almost completely put on hold. We are not able to invite this year, Belarus will not grant visas, so were keeping the money to invite and pay for one child, their flight and visa, to come in 2022, so thank you very, very much to Rotary, we couldn't do it without you."

YMCA Dorchester

"Primarily we offer sports activities, we used to offer football, cricket, table tennis, snooker, billiards, netball, but more recently, we have a gym and its primarily gymnastics, but in our activity hall we offer table tennis as well and the hall we have people come in and use it for yoga, for other classes and in the gym, which is very well equipped. We offer everything from parent and toddler groups to adult classes in trampolining, taking in all the years, including a disabled gymnastics class as well, so we try to include everyone.

"The system of if people want to attend but are unable to, we will subsidise.

"In terms of what we're aiming and planning to do, we had plans to extend the building and extend some of the facilities inside, that's been on hold due to covid, the only reason we were able to fund that was through a legacy but it wasn't enough so were always after more funds.

"Gymnastics is an expensive business, the equipment costs a lot and we've got a £12,000 bill coming up to replace some equipment and with Covid we had to look again at everything we do, change mats, change covers, buy new equipment.

"We take them from right at the very start and in the past, we've had members going on to represent England in gymnastics.

"Anything we receive we are very grateful for and we furloughed our staff but looking to reopen again in April, thank you very much."

South West Dorset Multicultural Network

"We are a very small charity that started 20 years ago to promote the positive contribution of black and ethnic minority groups in the area. We also celebrate the diversity locally by bringing people from different backgrounds together.

"We try to reach out to different organisations in the area, such as the Race Equality Council, different churches, as well as schools and Weymouth College in the hope that we can combat racism. In order to do that we have some big events, we start the year with the Holocaust Memorial Day, unfortunately because of Covid we couldn't have it this year.

We also celebrated the Romany Gypsy Traveller History Month and at the end of the year we have the Black History Month.

"During the year we have different activities by bringing people together to have a different kind of meal - Indian, the middle east, polish food - and people just come, listen to music and talk to each other. Because of covid, this year we collected a small amount of money and food from Tesco as well as Waitrose and we gave it to the community church in Poundbury and in turn donated to the food bank.

"We also have good links with the Syrian resettlement programme in the area and we're quite involved with the Syrian refugees.

"Because of the money we received, we are very grateful to every penny, every penny helps, thank you very much."

Dorchester Middle School

"Thank you for the opportunity to take part, obviously this year our fundraising has been very sporadic, we can't hold outdoor fetes and things like that and hopefully the money will go to pay for the extras, it's not intended for the mainstream school, it's for the extras to enhance the curriculum. Obviously, schools are struggling at the moment in all sorts of ways as are other organisations."

Dorchester Disabled Club

"Many thanks for the money you gave us from the proceeds of the raffle.

"At present the Dorchester Disabled Club has 31 members. We meet normally on the first and third Thursday evenings most months in the day centre at Acland Road and we meet with further clubs in Weymouth, Wareham and Swanage with the musical afternoon with tea and annual dinner.

"Having two purpose built mini buses able to carry wheelchairs means were able to transport members to and from the meetings and to go on outings to places of interest. The mini buses very importantly are made available to local organisations, housing association groups, residential care homes and various church groups. The buses are driven by our own drivers and a donation is given to the club by the organisations that use it. In addition, we run a monthly shopping service for outlying villages.

"The club is run entirely by volunteers who all believe passionately we run a valuable service to the people often isolated from society by age or disability.

In the club members can meet and chat about their experiences, get information, be entertained and be confident, because whoever we are, we all need friendship and support and we are proud to be able to give those.

"During the present situation we have kept in contact with our members through telephone and letters, because they are the most vulnerable people in society at present.

"At Christmas we made up and sent out hampers of food and drink and other Christmasy items and this Easter we will be organising a small Easter gift and many thanks to Rotarians who were our Santas and are going to be our Easter bunnies.

"I'm very pleased to say the generous gift from yourselves went a long way to the cost of the hampers so again thank you and were very grateful for your continuing support."

Rotarian Les Fry thanked all the organisations the sponsors and the team that organised the "very successful" draw, which made a total of £9,310.

He said: "It has been a difficult year for all of us and we had a discussion whether we would even go ahead with this draw. As you can see, it's been really worthwhile."

President Vanessa Lucas added: "It's been absolutely mind-blowing to listen to all the things you have done in your different groups, a fantastic range of activities and it's quite humbling to listen to your stories."

Dorset councillor Stella Jones thanked the organisations for all they do in the community.

She said: "Dorset Council during the pandemic has worked with lots of volunteer organisations in order to keep the community working well.

"Everybody has worked together; communty spirit has been high, nobody has been left alone unless they wanted to be left alone, and organisations, especially like the Rotary, have played their part in helping everybody in the community and it's just wonderful what you do to help everyone during this awful time and hopefully we can all get back to normal soon, start fundraising and start enjoying activities again.

"On behalf of Dorset Council, I would like to thank all of you for everything you do in the community."

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