HENNIKER — Rotary Clubs across New Hampshire have reached deep into their pockets to aid their Vermont neighbors who were devastated when Hurricane Irene tore through New England last year.

This week, the Rotary Foundation along with 49 New Hampshire Rotary Clubs and other clubs from around the world, delivered a check for $412,450 to the communities in Vermont that were hard-hit by the hurricane that swept through in August 2011.

Two New Hampshire women, Janice McElroy from Henniker and Marilyn Bedell from West Lebanon, district governors for Rotary International, spearheaded the fundraising effort, collecting more than $60,000 from New Hampshire clubs, $30,000 from Vermont clubs, and bringing in contributions from as far away as Taiwan and South Africa. In all, they raised $238,384, and were then given a matching grant of $174,066 from the Rotary Foundation.

McElroy said she felt she had to step in and help after visiting parts of Vermont that had been ravaged by the storm.

“I visited Vermont two days after the storm hit and traveled extensively throughout the state over the next months. I heard from clubs about the damage done in their areas and what they were doing in their communities to help,” said McElroy.

Having traveled to New Orleans to see the impact of Hurricane Katrina, McElroy said she witnessed a different, but no less severe kind of damage to infrastructure and community in Vermont because it’s such a rural state and the wreckage was so spread out.

“I talked with state officials and others who estimated that this would be a three- to six-year recovery effort,” said McElroy. “I decided that long- term assistance would be needed and that Rotary could help.”

Rotary has assisted the victims of the tsunamis in Japan and Sri Lanka, hurricanes Katrina and Rita that hit the South, and the earthquake in Haiti along with other natural disasters, and the club members wanted to give that same support to people close to home.

The money will be dispersed to five Community Action Agencies to assist people in Vermont who haven’t received help through the Federal Emergency Management Agency or other organizations.

“And there are many who slipped through the cracks in the programs meant to help them,” said McElroy. “Others were too proud or embarrassed or not able to do the paperwork or didn’t realize the extent of damage to their property and received no assistance in the early phase of the recovery.”

For more information visit rotary7870.org.

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Nancy Bean Foster may be reached at nfoster@newstote.com.