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Flags fly across Oak Bay and beyond as fundraiser for local, international causes

Rotary club adds monthly bottle drives to its fundraising tools
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Flags line Granite Street ahead of a summer long weekend in Oak Bay, thanks to the Rotary subscription program. (Christine van Reeuwyk/News Staff)

As the 10th anniversary of its Canada flag program approaches, Rotary Club of Oak Bay celebrated the final long weekend of summer with neighbourhoods aflutter as far off as Sooke.

The program marks a decade in 2023, and is a celebration of the nation, with residents subscribing to have a flag planted in their yards on Victoria Day, Canada Day and the Labour Day weekends.

For 2022, funds raised supported several local projects such as Threshold Housing, the purchase of a special wheelchair for the pool of the Oak Bay Recreation Centre; funding the foot program at Our Place; and supporting Tilley the therapy dog at Tillicum Elementary School.

The local rotary also supports international programs such as vocational training for women in rural Rwanda, training of community health workers in Bolivia and a malaria prevention program in Uganda.

READ ALSO: Rotary targets 600 Canada flags flying in Oak Bay, Victoria this summer

For $50, flags are installed on subscribers’ lawns for Victoria Day, Canada Day and Labour Day. Visit oakbayrotary.ca and click on Flag Program to participate.

This year, the club also launched bottle drives on the first Saturday of the month. Cash raised over the first eight months, $6,177, went to the Jack Wallace Memorial Track resurfacing project. For the remainder of the year, funds will be split between the track fundraiser and Threshold Housing.

Bottle drives are the first Saturday of each month from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., in the Cranmore Road parking lot of Oak Bay High.

Donate online at oakbayrotary.ca, with tax receipts for contributions of $25 or more.

READ ALSO: Retiring Oak Bay High teachers hope to make track resurfacing a parting gift

c.vanreeuwyk@blacckpress.ca


 

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