Student Initiatives: Rotaract - Learn, Help, Celebrate

2021-05-03 The student initiative Rotaract is known at Leuphana for its blood donation campaigns. Behind the initiative are many other charitable projects, a strong community and a worldwide network.

Rotaract Club Lüneburg ©Privat
"Do good and have fun doing it - if that's what you're in the mood for, you're in the right place with us."

"Especially in times of the pandemic, when there are fewer blood donors overall, it is extremely important to create opportunities to motivate young people in particular to donate," explains Max Reimer, President of the Rotaract Club Lüneburg. Once a semester, the initiative organises a blood donation campaign on campus together with the German Red Cross. Thanks to a sophisticated hygiene concept, the event was last held successfully in March 2021 despite the pandemic. "The blood reserves are currently urgently needed, so it was important for us to also offer the donation campaign during Corona." The initiative also provided support in other places last year. For example, members of the club write letters to people in old people's homes and nursing homes, collect rubbish in the city and organise food deliveries. "When the food bank was temporarily closed, we decided to bring the food to people as a Food-Bank-To-Go," Reimer explains.

"Learn, help, and celebrate" is the motto of the initiative. Regular meetings are divided into chat meetings and club meetings. At the club meetings, lectures are held or workshops are organised. "We invite interesting people from different fields, recently we had a lecture on resilience of actors," Reimer says, "but apart from the weekly meetings and the charitable work, the coolest event for me so far was the Ilmenau Cup." This is a canoe trip that is held annually as a cup in Lüneburg, to which Rotaract clubs from all over Germany come.

There are Rotaract clubs all over the world. In Germany alone there are 3,300 members and almost 200 clubs. Worldwide it adds up to 200,000 members spread over 10,000 clubs in over 180 countries. It's a huge network for meeting new people. Reimer sums it up: "Do good and have fun doing it - if that's what you're in the mood for, you're in the right place with us."