A Rotary Club president passes the baton today after leading his group through the most extraordinary of times.

Tony Cook has headed the Rotary Club of Dover though a year of pandemic lockdowns and having to adapt to the restrictions.

Face to face meeting were replaced with remote ones and even fundraising events had to be socially distanced.

He and fellow members became voluntary helpers and guides as the vaccination programme began in Dover last winter.

Mr Cook is finally replaced by his successor, Ian Wright of Whitfield, in a handover ceremony this evening (Thursday).

Mr Cook became the branch's 98th president on July 1, 2020, just as coronavirus restrictions were easing although they came back fully, with more lockdowns, by the winter.

All meetings took place by Zoom and Mr Cook also edited and produced a weekly newsletter to keep separated members in touch.

As traditional forms of fundraising were restricted Mr Cook came up with the idea of creating an online video of members singing Jingle Bells for Christmas.

Money raised from this went towards the new Sunrise community café in Snargate Street run by the homelessness group Dover Outreach Centre. This opened in the summer.

The Rotarian also set up a crowdfunding page for Outreach during 2020/21 and handed it a £5,000 cheque in August.

In December efforts by Mr Cook and his team led to revered Dover wartime surgeon Dr Gertrude Toland being honoured twice.

The memorial plaque for her at the former Buckland Hospital building was lost after the centre was replaced in 2015.

The Rotarians provided a new plaque but the old one was then found and placed next to the new.

Mr Cook and other Rotarians became volunteer guides for members of the public arriving at Dover Health Centre in Maison Dieu Road when Covid-19 vaccinations began there in January.

The Rotarians that month also began raising money to save the Dover Film Festival, which had become one of the many events financially knocked over by the pandemic.

With this help organisers were as usual able to show the festival's annual film of events in the town although only online because of lockdown.

In June Mr Cook organised the club’s litter pick contribution to the Keep Britain Tidy Campaign when much litter and rubbish were removed from Green Lane through the Buckland estate to Brookfield Avenue. Members of the South Foreland Rotary Club, also based in Dover, joined in this too.

Also in June Mr Cook was at the forefront of an exercise by club members to adopt a circular flower bed at Granville Gardens from Dover District Council. This enabled club members to place hundreds of flowering plants.

A Rotary president ends his or her term every June 30 but Mr Cook's was extended to now. He was acting president for the extra three months after Mr Wright had a suffered a bereavement.

Mr Cook, a former Sandwich Rotarian, will continue to serve the Dover branch as secretary after today.

Read more: All the latest news from Dover

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