An East Midlands weekly has been honoured for its community projects and fundraising appeals.

The Grantham Journal was named as a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary Club of Grantham at the club’s annual charter dinner.

The fellowship is an award given by Rotary International to recognise exceptional community work.

In recent months, the Johnston Press weekly has run an appeal on behalf of the Rotary club to provide shelterboxes for the people of Haiti.

The appeal involved schools, businesses and the public in a massive fundraising drive which culminated in a ‘Green Day’ when people were asked to wear green and donate money to the cause.

To mark the occasion, the Journal ran its masthead in green for the first time in its 106-year history.

After only a couple of weeks, readers raised £17,000 which was enough to send 40 shelterboxes to Haiti containing tents, tools and emergency survival kit for families made homeless by the earthquake.

The Journal was also praised for its annual coverage of Rotary’s Swimarathon event, which sees hundreds of Grantham people swimming over a February weekend to raise funds for town causes.

Rotary club president Rosalba Bartram said: “Here in Grantham we have a fantastic weekly newspaper.

“Not only does it report on the every day events but it is the champion for those in need.

“It supports local individuals and causes, and challenges authority when it feels the community needs it.”

The Journal also recently received an Investors in Education Award from the Education Business Partnership, made for the paper’s work in an annual industry challenge for schools across Lincolnshire.

Journal managing editor Tim Robinson hosts an annual briefing day for teachers from county secondary schools and pupils are set the challenge of designing a youth section for the paper’s website.

The results are marked by Tim and count towards students’ coursework marks.

The Paul Harris Fellow award was collected by Journal managing editor Tim Robinson (second left)