By Dan May
Rotary Club of Orange
Dan May
The Rotary Club of Orange annually provides $40,000 to $50,000 to support youth services, community organizations and international projects. These fund amounts are club-generated, but also can be matched or multiplied when projects are undertaken jointly with other clubs.
Youth services receives the largest share of this funding, with the funding mainly generated by Orange club member fundraising. The funds provide first-year college scholarship awards for high school graduates who reside in Orange as well as leadership development programming. Other funds support academic projects at Amity High as well as prizes for public speaking contests. Orange Rotary also helps fund activities for satellite youth clubs (called Interact clubs) that engage students at Amity, Hamden Hall and Hopkins high schools, as well as middle school children at St. Martin de Porres Academy.
The club also supports literacy projects at Orange’s elementary schools, and this year is sponsoring several mental health and wellness initiatives for children enrolled in these schools and their families. One of these is a Family Fun Wellness event to be held on Thursday, May 23 at Peck Place School. The wellness initiatives span both youth and community services goals for the club.
Annual club support of community projects includes providing a Thanksgiving dinner for veterans at the American Legion Hall, as well as “Pancakes at the Pavilion.” This brunch event is upcoming for seniors on Sunday, May 19 at High Plains Community Center in conjunction with the Senior Center.
This summer we are one of the sponsors of the town’s summer concert series on Thursday evenings and will host our family-focused Summerfest on Sept. 7.
Community projects often are undertaken in conjunction with other area not-for-profit organizations and/or nearby Rotary clubs. For example, the club assisted Marrakech with its holiday party for the disabled clients they serve, and is providing partial funding to launch a boxing academy with them for physically or behaviorally challenged youth. During last fall’s football season, our club joined with clubs from New Haven and North Haven to host a game-day event at Yale for Special Olympic athletes from south central Connecticut.
Another organization we collaborated with this year for a holiday stocking-stuffer project was Traveler on a Mission. TOAM helps provide personal hygiene products to residents who often are food insecure as well. This project complements a multi-year collaboration with Purple Pantry and Rotary clubs from Devon, Milford and West Haven to help provide a daily supply of shelf-stable food for nearby “pantries” among those maintained from East Haven to Bridgeport. Purple Pantry is truly a multi-organizational effort and includes churches, Elks clubs, YMCAs, Boys & Girls clubs and senior centers. Collaborating with other Rotary clubs brings an added benefit of receiving matching funds from the Rotary District for Southern Connecticut.
Rotary is an international organization, and the Orange club recently has partnered with clubs in rural Kenya and joined other Connecticut clubs on projects in Nepal and Guatemala. These included school and library projects, water supply improvements and health care service enhancements. Contributions from other clubs and districts are supplemented with funds from the Rotary International Foundation and can yield project-funding levels in the six-figure range.
Such projects thus reach a threshold to apply for matching funds from other global philanthropic organizations. Philanthropy at this scale relies on a pyramid of collaboration and cooperation.
However, it all starts with local fundraising and donor solicitations. The Orange club provided members’ “sweat-equity” on the April 27 shredding day event at High Plains. And we are grateful that town citizens generously donated over $2,400 that day. Our next fundraiser is part of our ongoing online Mother’s Day Rose Sale, with roses available for pickup on May 10 at High Plains. Please consider purchasing roses for the mothers you cherish, and help support Rotary youth services and community initiatives, too. You can find out more about that event at rotarycluboforange.org.
Our September community Summerfest and Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot are also fundraising ventures.
Nearly all club member dues are routed to our regional district and Rotary International. The club actively tries to get most this back as matching funds by collaborating with other clubs on community or international projects. Past and current members, as well as long-time community “Friends of Rotary,” have also been generous with individual donations and planned giving. As a result, the club has been able to establish a small endowment that supplements annual fundraising. Rotary is an all-volunteer organization, so nearly all funds received are returned back to local youth and community projects, with some linked into Rotary’s network of global grants.
Dan May is the president of the Rotary Club of Orange.