The Collaborative Grants Committee was stunned with the enthusiasm and the number of completed applications for this initiative. As one committee member put it, ‘It has been so difficult to collaborate with our own members for service this past year. It is so wonderful to see so many clubs wanting to collaborate with each other for service.’
The District Finance Committee has awarded $26,500 in strategic reserve funds towards these projects. Here is quick summary of club involvement and impact:
- 17 applications
- 35 Utah Rotary Clubs collaborating (several clubs are collaborating on more than one grant – this number does not double count)
- 3 Rotaract Clubs collaborating (one is international)
- 6 Interact Clubs collaborating
- 33 collaborating organizations
- 11,000 people served (as estimated in the applications)
- $161,807 – total project costs
The Collaborative Grants Committee (five Rotarians and one Rotaractor) worked hard with clubs to develop applications. The clubs worked hard to propose new impactful service and have made new collaborations.
Committee members – Lil Barron, Wendi Hassan, Cheri McCurdy, Sam Sanders, Julie Snowball, Jordan Taylor – will continue to work with clubs throughout this Rotary Year, clarifying member involvement and project plans, urging increased club donation through fundraisers. Clubs must promote their service within their communities, post photos and summaries of their service on social media, prepare interim and final reports. Some projects will be featured on the District website utahrotary.org and some clubs will present their collaborative service at May 2022 District Conference.
Here are the projects and partners:
- Blanding and Monticello clubs are collaborating to donate and deliver board books to newborns at local hospitals.
- Bountiful, Richfield, Mt Timp, Cedar City, Salt Lake are working with Snow College for a scholarship endowment for Native American students.
- Cedar City and SUU Rotaract are working to establish a Food Pantry for elementary schools in the area.
- Dixie Sunrise and Red Rock are expanding their Food Pantry program to another elementary school in their area.
- Glendale and West Jordan, along with a Columbian Rotaract club, are working to supply wheelchairs to Columbian villagers in need.
- Holladay, Murray, and Hispano-Latinos are donating a Tuff Shed to meet desperate storage needs at the Midvale Free Clinic.
- Logan and Cache Valley Morning clubs are establishing a Humanitarian Center, a clearinghouse for volunteers for several local charities.
- Midvalley, South Valley, Sandy, Murray, and Valley West are significantly remodeling the Midvale Free Clinic and supplying medical devices.
- Millcreek and Salt Lake Rotaract are partnering to provide a career curriculum to local teen refugees through the Youthlinc Real Life program.
- Mt Timpanogos and Lehi will provide a motorized food palette jack to a local Food Bank.
- Ogden and Layton are partnering to provide ipads to the Hill Air Force Base elementary school and creating a rec center for Airmen.
- Park City, Park City Sunrise, Park City Twilight, and Moab are collaborating with several nonprofits to put on a vision clinic.
- Salt Lake Rotaract and Salt Lake club are renovating a Head Start classroom.
- Sugar House and Tooele will donate a basketball court for disadvantaged teen girls.
- Vernal and Roosevelt are providing biliblankets to local hospitals for babies born with jaundice.