April, 2006 My Fellow Rotarians - Rotary's Global History Fellowship

District 6440 Histories 2005
Plus Club.
1988-89 - Carnival held in August provided funds in excess of $21,000. A World Community Project
was approved by Rotary International involving Camp Elim in Haiti with their matching our Club’s
$1,000 contribution.
For 1989-90, funds have been allocated for Junior Achievement grants, two $500 scholarships, $700
Rotary Youth Leadership grants, and the Kenneth Young Center. Contributed thus far: $2,000 to Meals
on Wheels, $3,000 to construction of new kitchen for Center, $2,500 to support Senior Citizens Center,
$1,000 to Kids Line/Talkline. Funds have also been designated as $2,000 for Crisis Assistance, $2,000
for Substance Abuse and support for Special Olympics for Handicapped.
2001-02 – William J. Beaupre was president. I am extremely proud of my year as president. However, I
must point out that all of our accomplishments were done because of a great club that works well
together. The following is our major accomplishments for my year: Donated ambulance to Hillside
ESDA; $5,000 to boys baseball; $15,000 to multiple local charities; $2,000 to 9/11 relief fund and
helped collect funds; catered senior luncheon for more than 200 seniors at Christmas; $1,250 to
avoidable blindness in India; coordinated our $2,500 into matching grants for Haiti trade school; shipped
used text books to Africa to help with literacy; awarded $6,000 in scholarships for college and trade; and
established new Interact club at Elk Grove High School. We received an award for Foundation
contribution and an award for international project.
2003-04 – Matthew Personette was president. Many thanks to the hard working members in the club
who contributed to the following accomplishments: Our annual fundraiser set a new record this year,
raising over $50,000 in net proceeds; we donated over $22,000 to 34 local charities in the community;
we also donated $4,000 in Scholarships to District 211 & 214 students; we voted to set up a reserve fund
of $10,000 for future community projects; and lastly, we donated over $10,000 to the Rotary
International Foundation.
2004–05 - We joined the Rotary International in celebrating 100 years of Rotary service throughout the
world. To honor this accomplishment, and in recognition of our club's contributions to the village, Elk
Grove Village named our club the Grand Marshals for the annual village parade. The parade coincides
with our annual Rotaryfest - a community celebration of food, fun, and entertainment. Our donations to
local charities topped $23,000. In addition, we provided volunteer hours to such worthy causes as the
ACS Relay for Life, Young Life, and the Knights of Columbus MHLD Drive. We raised additional
dollars for victims of the Asian Tsunami disaster and Caribbean hurricane relief. We provided funding
for the Leap into Literacy Program and received district recognition for our efforts. We created CARE
packages for soldiers in Iraq as a result of a request from a local family whose son was stationed there
with the Marines. We donated money, in conjunction with the Hoffman Schaumburg club, to create a
soldier memorial at Conant H.S. We presented college scholarships totaling $8,000 to local high school
students from Elk Grove High School and Conant High School. Finally, we undertook our single largest
international project - WISRAD and successfully raised approximately $50,000 to purchase an X ray
machine for the island of St Lucia. The raffle to raise the funds gave away a Honda Gold Wing
motorcycle as top prize to the winner (A fellow Rotarian from Wheaton). Clubs throughout district 6440
and 6450 helped by purchasing tickets as our club visited many other clubs and shared the WISRAD
story and fellowship at their weekly meetings. We recruited 2 new members and enjoy the continued
friendship and fellowship that makes Rotary a special service organization.
Youth Exchange Activity:
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