Two members, Martins Zeps (from Riga, Latvia) and Indre Kasperaityte (from Lithuania) of Rotaract were guests of York Ainsty Rotary Club on Monday 8th November, 2010 for a presentation given by Issy Sanderson, who is working with a charity in Riga, Latvia to raise money for a Care Centre for the elderly.

A Latvian Festival was organised on Saturday 4th June 2011 that was held here in Yorkshire.

The York Ainsty club also hope to develop links with the Rotary Club of Riga International through this Charity.

Our first meeting of the mentoring project happened in the Poppleton High School on the 9th of March. Thanks to the support of Trevor Woodward from the York Vikings Club we had the first workshop. The aim was to teach and form future mentors that were going to help children of different age groups. We spent a nice evening participating in several group exercises to improve our team work skills and to understand the role and duty of a mentor. We had the chance to realise what mentoring is, we learnt that the main purpose is listening and understanding how you can help the person you’re mentoring in a best way.

Our president Dario Palumbo says: "I really believe that what we have learnt is going to be really useful for all the rest of our project and in our life. Many thanks Trevor!"

After two years of succesful projects and events organised in line with the idea of service within the York comunity, in order to preserve the continuity of our club it was time for our committee to pass on to the next one.

For this reason everyone was invited to our black tie Handover Dinner where we had the chance to thank the committee members for the great job they did through the past years and to welcome the new one.

The event was at the "Biltmore" restaurant which offered a really nice atmosphere for us.

Once again a big thanks for the past Committe and especially our past President Dario Palumbo who contributed a lot towards the successful start of the York Rotaract club!

Following the Thanks For Life campaign we were planting the crocus bulbs on campus in order to sensitize the university community to Rotary's End Polio campaign.

Those who took part in this project planted purple crocus bulbs which represent the colour of ink dabbed on a child’s little finger to indicate they had been immunised against polio.

We planted the flowers in two different sites, the hill close to Central Hall and the area in front of the Sally Baldwin Buildings.

Thanks to those who participated!