Projects and Programs Supported by

The Rotary Club of Fort Lauderdale

The Rotary Motto is “SERVICE ABOVE SELF”

Rotarians are “PEOPLE OF ACTION”

 

The following alphabetical list includes the ways members of the Rotary Club of Fort Lauderdale are serving others during the Rotary Year.

 

Adopt-a-Street: April and October:  The Rotary Club has volunteered to clean a street in Fort Lauderdale for nearly a decade.   Keeping our city streets clean is very important to Rotarians. Volunteers (members and non-members) who want to “get their hands dirty” should contact Jorg Hruschka at 954-709-3197. We do provide gloves, trash pickers, buckets, and bags. 

 

Books for the Bahamas – September: Rotarians collect used text books from one or more local schools, pack them on pallets, and ship them to Rotarians in the Bahamas where the books get a second life.

 

Challenge Air –January: This program builds self-esteem in children/youth with special needs through the exhilaration of riding in a private aircraft. If able, the child can sit in the co-pilot seat. Annually, about 90 children/youth fly from Fort Lauderdale’s Executive Airport.  Contact Terry Robinson at 954-494-8242.

 

Children’s Toy Drive - Rotarians provide hundreds of toys to children at the Salah Foundation Children’s Hospital at Broward Health, Children's Diagnostic and Treatment Center, the Ann Stork Center, and Henderson Behavioral Health at Christmas. Contact Linda Cooke at 954-494-7779.

 

Direct Grant-in-aid – Grants from between $1,500 and $4,000 to fund local organizations including AMIKids Greater Fort Lauderdale, Broward Partnership for the Homeless, Challenge Air, Power of One Hour, Early Literacy Project/Free Little Libraries, Henderson Behavioral Health, Hurricane Relief, Project Stable Foundation, Thanksgiving Meals, Turkeys Take Flight (Thanksgiving meals), and other qualified organizations approved by the Rotary Club of Fort Lauderdale and the 1090 Foundation Board.

 

Early Childhood Development – Global Grant: Our club provided $6,500, and other clubs in the United States contributed as well, to fund the education and training of a group of 16 ECD practitioners in Haenertsburg, South Africa. Upon completion of the training, these ladies will return to their homes in the bush and provide much needed education for parents and children before the child enters public school. Children who are in formal classes before Kindergarten have a much higher graduation rate from high school than those who don’t.  

 

End Polio Now: Through The Rotary Foundation, our club supports an international project called Polio Plus.  Rotarians, with the help of the World Health Organization, have almost eliminated Polio from the world. Work began in the late 70’s when there were 350,000 “wild” cases of polio annually and in 2018 there were only 33 reported “wild” cases in the world. The goal is to eliminate the disease and prevent it from ever returning.

 

Hurricane Relief – Following hurricanes, our club mobilizes very quickly to collect and distribute needed supplies to the affected areas. In the past three years, money and supplies have been sent to the Florida Keys, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Florida’s Panhandle region, North Carolina, and Fort Myers.

 

Interact Clubs: Our Rotary Club sponsors and supports two Interact Clubs for High School students, one at Cardinal Gibbons High School and one at Dillard High School. Interact is a Rotary-sponsored service club that gives young people an opportunity to participate in fun and meaningful service projects while developing leadership skills and meeting new friends. The basic principle of the Rotary Interact is to help others.

 

Power of One Hour – By cleaning and planting new landscaping, Rotarians improve the physical environment of public spaces throughout our community. We work with the City of Fort Lauderdale’s Community Civic Volunteer Corps and the Broward Partnership for the Homeless. 

 

Rotary Youth Exchange – The club supports inbound high school students from other countries who are selected through a competitive application process to study in the United States during a year of their high school career; in exchange, American students also spend a year abroad learning a new culture.

 

Salvation Army Bell Ringing – The club supports the Salvation Army with member’s individual contributions and 40 to 50 volunteers who ring the bell at “kettle locations” throughout Fort Lauderdale. We are very proud that our Rotary Club has consistently been the one organization that yields the highest dollar value in “kettle contributions”.

 

Sanitation Project: The club funds grant requests from A Spring of Hope to help with the cost of waterless toilets in South Africa. The schools who receive the waterless toilets are so grateful because they only had a latrine before. The waterless toilets help reduce illness caused by poor sanitation and hygiene. .Contact Gail Auguston-Koppen at 503-804-4844.

 

Senior Care – Rotarians provide gifts for seniors at Christmas and also fellowship with them. Contact Linda Cooke at 954-494-7779.

 

Scholarships for College and Vocational/Technical Schools – Distribute approximately $50,000 to eligible Broward County high school graduates pursuing higher education and vocational education. Over the past 50 years, over $2 million has been awarded in direct aid to very deserving students.

 

Thanksgiving Baskets: November 19, 2022.  Provides full Thanksgiving dinners for needy families in Fort Lauderdale in collaboration with the First Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale.  Volunteers are needed to deliver many of the meals to people who can’t come to the church to pick them up. Contact Sally Botkin at 954-651-1004.

 

Turkeys Take Flight: Provides full Thanksgiving dinners for needy families in Immokalee, FL and volunteers fly them in their private planes from Fort Lauderdale to Immokalee and they are given to the families who work in the feels growing many of the vegetables we consume every day.  

 

Water Projects – The club gives grants to A Spring of Hope and Replenish, Inc. to fund the construction of potable water wells in South Africa and the purchase of water filtration systems in Kenya. These projects are located at schools which encourage the parents to send their children to school.

 

Weekly Wheelchairs – The club dedicates the delivery of a wheelchair to a person in need of hope and mobility somewhere in the world, in the name of the guest speaker at the Rotary Club of Fort Lauderdale’s weekly club meeting.

 

Wheelchairs - Sponsors the delivery of wheelchairs from the Wheelchair Foundation to people around the world in need of mobility. Many times this is the first time the recipient has had any mobility in their lives.

 

All donations and in-kind gifts to the Fort Lauderdale Rotary 1090 Foundation, a Florida 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit corporation, are tax-exempt to the extent permitted by law. There are no fees or overhead costs associated with the programs supported by our foundation as club volunteers undertake all our activities. Contributions may be made payable to the Fort Lauderdale Rotary 1090 Foundation, Inc. Our Federal EIN number is 23-7247846.