Millcreek Rotary is Club of the Year 2020
The Rotary Club of Millcreek is honored to be named Rotary Club of the Year for District 5420. The Club was the only Club in District 5420 to earn the Rotary Citation at the Platinum Level. They are also the first club to win this distinction twice, the last time being the 2016-2017 Rotary year.
This year, the Millcreek Rotary Club focused on supporting the important work of Volunteers of America. Club members worked at the VOA on multiple occasions throughout the year to support teens dealing with homelessness and by working with their women’s resource center. Even through the COVID pandemic, the club has still been supporting the VOA with hands-on service, using appropriate social distancing, handwashing, and face-covering protocols. The Club also donated $5,000 to support their important work.
Millcreek Rotary Club also had the joy of working with elementary school students at Millcreek Elementary by helping them form a Lego League to learn importation math and engineering skills in a fun and interactive way. This was done as a part of a District grant and are happy to report that due to the grant’s jumpstarting efforts, the school will be able to carry on this project next year independent of Rotary’s financial support! The club looks forward to offering continuing support as volunteers.
The Club also supported two Global Grants this year, one in Cambodia undertaken by a club in Florida, and one in Uganda that they were delighted to support from the Midvalley Club. They also saw to completion a Global Grant the club undertook in Madagascar in 2016. They are able to support at least one Global Grant per year due to the success of their signature annual fundraiser, Wine Into Water. This event was held at Tracy Aviary where they had wine tasting and hors d’oeuvres, opportunity drawings, and a direct donation appeal to support Global Grants and other club service initiatives. They are grateful to the hundreds of folks who attended and so generously donated to help them do so much good this year, including Rotarians from many other clubs!
Millcreek Rotary Club also took part in the U40 initiative set out by DG Hanrahan. The club found this a critical process to engage in to question their ways of doing things to ensure that they are set up, both culturally and structurally, to be inclusive and welcoming of younger members, who often feel Rotary is not accessible to them. But it is! They were able to move our percentage of members under 40 to 12% of their membership. They are also looking forward to applying similar principles to becoming more racially diverse in the future and have established a new committee on Diversity and Inclusion.
The Club also sponsored students to attend RYLA, sponsored an Interact Club at City Academy, and are launching a new Interact Club at Hillcrest High School next year, with over 200 students already signed up.
The Club also transitioned to being a virtual club starting March, like many other clubs. They worked hard to maintain their service commitment and to provide much needed social interaction through the strict times of social distancing. The Club also had a variety of guest speakers talk to the club throughout the year, including Congressman Ben McAdams, Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson, and Hay Soe, a remarkable refugee college student from Myanmar who they claim may have been the best guest speaker in their club history. They are happy to refer him to other clubs to hear about his powerful life journey.