Club Projects
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Chicago Rotary Club finds a great
"Earth Day" project
and shares the great idea!
Rotaractors & Friends,
Our beach clean-up just became a VERY IMPORTANT event! We`ve just found out Congressman Rahm Emanuel requested to join us and we`ll be the only group out there! So high participation is needed. We`ve been requested to take photos for the Alliance of the Great Lakes.
Tomorrow is our first Beach Clean-up Day at North Avenue Beach for 2008. Join us! Not only are we kicking off the season, we`re celebrating Earth Day. We will convene at 11am. Look for us near the North Ave. boathouse or at the bottom of the pedestrian bridge (that crosses Lakeshore).
Also, check out today`s RED-EYE. The cover story is about water contaminants in Lake Michigan. Can we say GREAT TIME to have a one-on-one with a Congressman!
SO GET THERE TOMORROW AND BRING FRIENDS! Bring sturdy gloves if you have them.
Holly
This is from the Alliance for the Great Lakes Coordinator:
I`d like to follow up with you about a voice message that our President and CEO Cameron Davis just left for you—Congressman Rahm Emanuel`s office is looking to come out and join our Adopt-a-Beach volunteers at the beach this weekend to celebrate Earth Day. He`d like to join a North Avenue beach cleanup on Sunday and it turns out you`re the only group that will be there this weekend!
Cam is working with the Congressman`s office and he would like to know what time you are planning to be out at the beach? If you could hit "reply all" to this email or return Cam`s call that would be great…Thanks once again for your participation!
Sincerely,
Holly Greniuk
President 2007-2008
Rotaract Club of Chicago
http://www.rotaractchicago.org/
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Rotary Club of Chicago
Shares Success Program Aimed At Teenagers.
Job 1
Job 1, formerly known as Job Start, is a program that we started last year. The City requested us to assist them with helping to make their Kid Start program, which is a program that helps Chicago youth find summer employment, more successful within the private marketplace. We then met with representatives of the Chicago Public Schools to  help us identity good candidates, and we committed to helping to find them substantive jobs with businesses in Chicago, preferably in an office setting. We set up 3 training sessions for the students, in conjunction with the Society of Human Resource Professionals and the National Institute for Teaching Entrepreneurship, and provided each one of the students with a Rotary advisor. Finally, we recruited employers to give them a full-time job for eight weeks during the summer at a minimum of $8 an hour.
We have received a great deal of positive feedback from the students and employers. The project works well as a Rotary project on several levels:
- it engages a large number of members
- it helps a large number of students to obtain positive experiences and
it assists them with not only finding a substantive job, by establishing professional contacts for future referrals and/or job-networking,
it enhances Rotary`s profile in the City
it provides the Club with a potential source of new members, including the employers and, farther into the future, the students
For more information, you can visit our website at www.job1world.org.
This past year, many 
JobStart advisors came from other Chicago-area Rotary clubs, including the Rotary Club of Chicago – Financial District, Rotary Club of Chicago Near South, Rotary Club of Chicago Far South, and Rotary Club of Chicago Near North. We encourage interested members of these and our other area sister clubs to contact the Rotary Club of Chicago staff office if interested in participating as an advisor for this year’s program. (Email info@rotaryone.org or call 312-884-JOB1.)
We are also looking to start Job1 programs in other local communities and are developing means to support and educate other clubs in their efforts.
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Contact Us
For more information about the Job1 program, or to get your own club involved, please drop us a line, give us a call, or even stop by our office.
Job1 Main Office
65 W. Jackson Boulevard
Room 911
Chicago, IL 60604
312-884-JOB1
District 6450 Job1 Coordinators
Andrea Thomalla
(312) 282-4038
Andrew Benedict-Nelson
(312) 860-0403 | | |
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Rotary Club of Oak Park - River Forest
_Committed to Literacy_
STORYTELLING FESTIVAL
March 2006
Our Club’s three year commitment to Literacy began with this year’s Club President, Werner Huget. Following Werner are Ruth McLaren and Bob Giles who have committed to carrying the theme forward. Together with our Club members we will address issues of literacy in our own communities, nearby communities, as well as on an international level.
Our goal is to raise around $ 50,000 this year to support our projects. The largest fundraising effort is intended to come from the sale of tickets for a drawing to take place on June 17, 2006 at our storytelling festival. Tickets will be sold for $ 100 per ticket with prizes of $ 10,000, $ 3,000 and $ 1,000. We are also offering a one year free Club membership to the Rotarian who sells the greatest number of tickets. We are encouraging other Clubs to buy tickets for their Club or for individual members. Year to date we have collected over $7,000 through fundraising, in large part due to a partnership we developed with four local bookstores who agreed to offer a 10% discount to anyone who purchased our Literacy Club Member card. We sell the cards, which are valid for one year, and the Club Member enjoys a discount on all purchases at these stores. We have already sold over 100 cards.
In terms of Literacy related activities, our Club has organized the following events:
- Our speaker’s gift is a gilded bookmark with our Club’s literacy tagline - What’s Your Story?
- One program a month is dedicated to literacy in some form, including hearing from internationally known authors
- Hosted a Literacy Club night for over 150 which included two storytellers
- Developed a funded partnership with Literacy Volunteers of Western Cook County
- Two storytelling events at our local children’s museum with writing activities
- Organized 25 high school students to interview elderly citizens to obtain ‘their story’
- The students will record the interviews and write a summary of the interview highlights. The club will collect the dited histories and publish them in a printed volume.
- At our local Day in the Village we will provide children’s storytellers on the main stage along with our chocolate chip cookies from the Solar Oven
- We gave financial support to a Literacy program in Nepal to teach illiterate women and children to read
- For our Community Projects we asked for grant requests with a literacy theme, and awarded over $ 12,000 in funding
- Our Club members together read and discussed the Ray Bradbury classic on book burning and banned books, Farenheit 451 (and we have plans to continue reading together)
- Provided training for Club members to serve as mentors with Literacy Volunteers
- Our signature event, scheduled for the weekend of June 17 will be a storytelling festival for all to attend to take place at our two libraries and two universities
- Our major fundraising efforts will go for start-up of a Cooperative Children’s Literature Center to be housed at Dominican University in
River Forest
We chose storytelling as an integral part of our literacy program because reading, writing, and storytelling are such a natural combination. Every day we are exposed to stories: stories from friends, family, and neighbors. Stories are part and parcel of our human existence and culturally are how we bring history to the present day. And, a storytelling festival is a great way to gain visibility for both Rotary and Literacy in our communities and the surrounding area.
We invite other Clubs to join us in our efforts. Please consider buying one or more tickets, or join us at one of our events. Or, we would be happy to share some of our ideas- we have done a lot of good in a short period of time with active members who support our efforts every day.
For more information, please contact:
Werner Huget 708-383-7053
Bob Giles 708-383-8167
Ruth McLaren 708-660-7002
Visit our Website.
www.oprfrotary.org
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Spring Festival Flyer. Click here.
Storytelling Brochure. Click here. |
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The Dictionary Project
Interested readers are invited to go to the website www.dictionaryproject.org for complete information. A variety of books are offered, ranging in price from $1.00 to $3.95. Custom covers are not available; the publisher suggests a donor organization imprint and paste in a custom decal, and some examples are offered. This is the way we would have to go – meaning a “stick-in” project at one of our meetings – leaving within each book some information about Rotary and Chicago Heights Rotary Club. This has been a very popular project with Rotary Clubs and districts, as evidenced by the lengthy list of donors.
The idea for the Dictionary Project began in 1992 when Annie Plummer of Savannah, Georgia gave 50 dictionaries to children who attended a school close to her home. She didn’t stop there. In her lifetime she raised the money to buy 17,000 dictionaries for children in Savannah. Annie Plummer died December 23, 1999, but her dream did not die with her. She left an idea that has developed into The Dictionary Project, a nonprofit organization.
Many people have implemented The Dictionary Project who have never heard of her. Since her death, over 1.25 million children have received dictionaries because thousands of people saw the same need in communities all over the United States. Arno French formed a 501(c)(3) nonprofit Association in 1995.
The Dictionary Board set a goal to provide dictionaries to all of the third grade students in South Carolina each year. In 1997 they expanded their mission to include all of the students in the United States. The purpose of The Dictionary Project is to provide dictionaries to students to keep to use as their own personal reference books. A dictionary is an essential tool for a quality education. Many children do not own a dictionary nor do they have access to one in their home. This agency seeks to provide dictionaries to all of the children who are in school. The program is typically implemented in the third grade each year.
The goal of the Dictionary Project is to improve the reading ability and comprehension of all children, everywhere. It is our goal to encourage children to use dictionaries so that they will be able to use the English language effectively. A student cannot do his or her best work without a dictionary. By providing this tool we assist teachers in making all students active readers, good writers and creative thinkers.
The program has been adopted and refined by civic organizations all over the country. Groups such as Rotary Clubs, Kiwanis Clubs, Granges, Lions Clubs, The Republican Federation of Women and The Jewish Council of Women have implemented The Dictionary Project where they live. Anyone can participate in this project by sponsoring a program to provide dictionaries to children in their community. The dictionaries are a gift for the children to keep.
Students can use the dictionaries throughout their school career. Each year we offer new dictionaries that have been improved by sharing suggestions from teachers, students and parents with the publishers. The ideas we receive from sponsors, students and teachers are an integral part of this project because they give our Board of Directors direction. Research has shown that one book is shared by at least four people. A dictionary in the home serves as a resource for the whole family. It improves everyone’s vocabulary and it encourages children to learn more words.
The Dictionary Project is funded through donations and sponsors who introduce the program in their local schools. All donations and contributions are tax deductible. The Dictionary Project is registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit Association in all 50 states. |
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Blue Island-Crestwood Rotary Club
100 year project:
A Permanent Gazebo was erected in the fall of 2005. Thank you to St. Frances Hospital for providing the concrete slab on which this Gazebo was built. |
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January 9, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Jill Rodriguez, President
Bensenville Rotary
C/o Bensenville Library
630-766-4642
jillrod@comcast.net
The Bensenville Rotary Club recently completed two projects that benefited children within the Bensenville community and throughout the world. On December 10, several hundred coats were distributed to children and families through the Bensenville Rotary’s Annual Coat Drive. The coat drive is held each year in conjunction with the Bensenville Youth Services Coalition Toy Drive, and residents and businesses are asked to donate new or slightly used coats, or make cash donations. The Bensenville Rotary Club underwrites the cost of purchasing new coats as well to meet the needs of families, and provides the volunteers to sort and distribute coats. Also contributing to the success of this year’s project was generous support from Kohl’s, Wal-Mart (Villa Park), Kmart, and the residents of Lifelink’s Bridgeway facility.
On December, the Fenton High School Honor Society presented the Rotary Club with a check in the amount of $1471 for UNICEF, raised through their Trick or Treat for UNICEF project. The funds will be designated for the Polio Plus program, a joint project of the United Nations International Children’s Fund, Rotary International, and the World Health Organization, to eradicate polio in the world. The students raised the funds in October and November by going door-to-door in the Bensenville and Wood Dale communities. The Bensenville Rotary Club pledged matching funds, and sent their check for $1500 to the Rotary Foundation’s Polio Plus program as well. Each dollar sent will vaccinate a child against the debilitating polio virus for life, and move us closer to eliminating polio in the last few countries in the world.
The Bensenville Rotary Club meets at Two Chef’s Restaurant on Tuesdays, 12:15. For more information about the Bensenville Rotary, contact Jill Rodriguez, 630-766-4642. |
Aurora/Naperville Rotary Club
Two Satisfying International Projects
Many farm laborers and their families live outside Cuenca, Ecuador, which is located in the foothills of the Andes Mountains and is 8000 feet above sea level. The children of these families start working in the fields at an early age, and education in the past was non-existent. Thus many of the local children were unable to read or write and would not have a chance to escape from poverty.
The Tomebamba Rotary Club in Cuenca recognized the humanitarian need and contributed to the start-up and operating needs of the Huayna Capac School which now has 230 students primarily in the lower grades.
Ecuadorian friends and an interest in the Galapagos Islands on the part of Dr. Roger Dupuis, DVM, a member of the Aurora/Naperville Rotary Club, brought him into contact with the Tomebamba Rotary leadership and the school in Cuenca. As a result, new friendships have been made and two very exciting and satisfying international projects developed. One was completed last year and the other nears completion.
Since many of the children had to walk long distances to school, frequently without breakfast, the school needed but did not have a kitchen/dining room area. The two clubs tackled these shortcomings; the Tomebamba Club supplied the building and the Aurora/Naperville Club provided tables, chairs, cooking utensils and appliances. The Ecuador club also pays for food and other operating expenses. Teachers are supplied by the city.
But this project would never have gotten off the ground if The Rotary Foundation and the District Designated Funds Committee had not approved matching funds. The A/N club contributed $1500 of the total $5250. There were lengthy applications and presentations but the time and effort were worth it in the end.
And the project was a huge success. Roger and his wife Jackie (a former Spanish teacher) traveled to Cuenca for the dedication and they were greeted with warm hospitality and friendship. During the visit the Dupuis were shown another school in a more rural setting. The need for a kitchen/dining area was even greater and they had nearly finished a building which would house it. Upon his return, Roger put the question
to the Aurora/Naperville Rotary Club and the answer was a resounding “yes”.
In this case, it was obvious from photos taken by Roger that there were other basic equipment items such as desks, chairs and blackboards that were needed as well. But money was an issue. However, at the District presentation a representive of the Hinsdale Rotary Club thought they would be interested in supporting the project. They did, and our final total was $8750.
The project at the Escuela Caserio Gualeleg is well under way according the Tomebamba Rotary Club President and it looks like there will be another trip to Ecuador for the Dupuis in the not too distant future.
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