For five days in October of 2018 the Veneto region of Italy including Belluno suffered a devastating natural disaster that left many villages near Belluno and into the Dolomites without any basic emergency communication services.
Following news of this Belluno natural disaster the rotary clubs of Bend and community members in our Bend-Belluno sister city organization contacted our friends of the Belluno Rotary Club as we wished to send funds to help them in immediate disaster relief. We were told to wait as the Belluno Rotary club was in the process of coming up with a project to plan that could be most effective following future natural disasters.
In early December Angelo Paganin president of the Belluno Rotary club informed us that working with local governments including community emergency services and first responders they had developed a comprehensive disaster preparedness plan that would provide a more reliable communication system during emergencies. With this emergency preparedness plan in place a financial goal was set and the campaign began in January.
Our club supported these financial efforts and we were notified that the campaign to raise funds was successfully completed. A community meeting was held in February to discuss the implementation.
The Rotary Club of Greater Bend was mentioned as one of the partners involved in this project and mentioned in the conference materials.