When the chips are down, that’s when the Gympie community steps up to help one another out, and nothing exemplifies this spirit more than the effort of the Gympie Rotary Club.
Past president of the club for the 2021-22 financial year, Karen Gresham, said the group were willing to spring into action almost before the water started to recede, but the initial problem was finding those who most needed their help.
“It was difficult to provide support initially, as we were unable to identify people whose houses were flooded, as they were uninhabitable,” she said.
But that didn’t stop Karen and her team from distributing $53,680 worth of help to individuals and families in the Gympie community over the course of the next 12 months.
Some of that help came in the form of $100 fuel or grocery vouchers, matching funds, dollar for dollar, sent from other Rotary groups.
In two cases, it was to secure a $3000 grant from Rotary Australia for two families to help renovate and flood proof their homes against future events.
Some of the assistance provided was simply delivering sandwiches and snacks to the volunteers helping with the monumental clean-up, including members of the Australian Defence Force, Rural Fire Service and more.
The Gympie Rotary Club also distributed 20 $500 grants to people hardest hit, supplied to them by the Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS).
Karen said it was a very emotional time, and all of the help she and Rotary provided was gratefully, sometimes tearfully received.
“I cried, almost as much as they did,” she said.
There were also 936 citronella candles that the group distributed to residents in low-lying areas to combat the swarms of mosquitoes and midges that followed in the weeks and months after the initial deluge.
Karen said certain members of the community were reluctant to accept assistance, especially farmers and those in the rural centres.
“They all said, ‘there’s so many people worse off than us.'”
She said a lot of Gympie Rotary members were either directly impacted, or had their families or friends affected by the floods, so naturally their focus was on helping out in those specific situations, but even for those select few Rotarians such as Karen, who weren’t affected, it was an extremely busy time.
“It was pretty exhausting for me,” she said.
But the satisfaction of helping to make a significant improvement for the people who had their lives upended, that exhaustion was worth it.
Karen said the assistance has been winding down over the last month or so, but even a year on, they were still providing help, which is a sense of great pride for her.
“We really have done an amazing job for our community and yes, I’m extremely proud of our accomplishments,” she said.
