August Rotary Foundation Newsletter.
August, 2022
Fellow Rotarians,
This article on the Rotary Foundation focuses on the Foundation’s impact on our local club. Many Rotarians think of the Foundation as something distant from our local club, e.g. Polio Plus, wells in countries that lack potable water, etc. This article is intended to bring the Foundation to its impact on us – grants.
A portion of every dollar contributed by our members is returned to us in the form of grants for which we apply. District grants are block grants that enable clubs and districts to address needs in their communities and abroad. The Rotary Foundation’s funding cycle makes district contributions available for use three years after they are received. The three-year cycle gives districts time to plan projects and activities and allows the Foundation to invest the contributions. For instance, 47.5% of the contributions received during 2021-22 are available for spending in 2024-25.
The following is a partial list of grants that we received because of donations we made to the Foundation.
- Hayward Library. Rotary donated $15,000 and partnered with the Lions Club to furnish the Children’s Section of the library with books and furniture.
- Shue’s Pond. Rotary donated $5,000 to the gazebo at Shue’s Pond to provide shelter for park visitors.
- Rotary also donated benches to be placed in the Shue's Pond area.
- Park Theater. Rotary donated $12,000 for the sound system for the Park Theater and has funded upgrades and maintenance.
- Rotary Reads. Rotary purchased and donated books and games to the LCO Boys and Girls Club, then provided Rotarians to read and play games with the kids after school.
- School Backpack Program. Rotary implemented a program through the Hayward Food Shelf to provide food for the weekend for students that needed that support.
- Northwood Strings. Northwood Strings provides support for students wishing to play a stringed instrument and makes scholarships available to students in need of financial support. Rotary helped Northwoods Strings get off the ground with grants and donations from our club.
- Mossy Foot Disease. Rotary sponsored Robyn Bjork, a registered nurse and former member of our club, to travel to Ethiopia to train personnel in the treatment of Mossy Foot disease. Robyn is a wound specialist and has received international recognition for the work she’s done with the support of Rotary.
- Churchill project. Rotary sponsored Churchill impersonator Randy Otto to speak to all high school students in and interesting and enlightening presentation
- Police dog project. Rotary sponsored a fund raiser to fund the addition of another police dog in the Hayward area.
- Little libraries project. Rotary sponsored 10 little self serve libraries to be built and installed in the Hayward Area.
- Shelter box international. A non-profit outgrowth of a Cornwall Rotarian's recognition of the need to provide immediate emergency shelter, food, and water, cooking utensils in a dignified way to people affected by worldwide disasters. We are providing funds for one to two Shelter Boxes per year at a cost of $1000 each and want to expand our support for this program.
- Equadoran Coffee Project. We have contributed $1000 through our Rotary District's efforts with the Ecuadorian Community Coffee Project, whose aim is to develop a sustainable community coffee roasting and packaging capability. This goes beyond the laborer participant's coffee bean picking efforts by our providing training, equipment, and educational assistance as efforts towards expanding local and sustainable community economic development.
- Horse Spirit and Vets on the River retreat and workshop sessions. Rotary supported a number of events.
- The Hayward club has supported a number of projects with other clubs. The library project with the Rice Lake club, The bridges project with Roseville club and others.
- Girls vocational training center. Dapaong, Togo, Africa. In cooperation with District Rotary Clubs, we supported the erection of a girl's vocational training school (staffed by current Peace Corps volunteers) in Dapaonga, Togo. In cooperation with the Dapaonga Rotary Club, other District Rotary Clubs, we received a District Matching Grant that multiplied our charitable contributions. This has become an ongoing program for us; supporting the school's structural needs and in providing ongoing needs for equipment, tools, educational materials, and supplies for the girls.
As you’re probably aware, Rotary operates on a fiscal year which runs from July 1 through June 30 of the following year. Therefore, all reporting is on a fiscal year basis. Although members are encouraged to donate $100 or more per year, I think it’s more important that each member donate something – at least $25 (about the cost of a half tank of gas). We only had four members who have donated to the Foundation in the 2021-2022 year. I know we can do better than that and encourage everyone to participate. It’s a new Rotary year, so PLEASE step up and contribute to the Annual Fund so that we can continue to receive grants from the District.
The quickest and easiest way to donate is to go online to http://rotary.org/donate and use a debit or credit card. If you’d prefer to send a check, please let me know and I can help you with that.
As always, if you have any questions, please contact me either by email (don@semler.us) or cellphone (612-309-0221).
Don Semler