Major Projects

ROTARY HOUSE - 2009 - 2011

Pictured left to right:
Paul Netzel, LA5 Past President, Past District Governor& RI Director
DK Lee, Past RI President
David Bland, LA5 Past President

PREVIOUS PROJECTS

"Let Music Ring"

Chair: Liz Reno

Major Project Chair Liz Reno, Pasadena Pops Maestra Rachael Worby, and LA5 President Janet Lindstrom celebrate the launch of "Let Music Ring", presenting a $150,000 check to the Pasadena Pops Orchestra for this innovative music appreciation program at John Adams Middle School.	Pasadena Pops Maestra Rachael Worby, assisted by members of the Pasadena Pops Orchestra, explains the differences in string instruments to John Adams Middle School students.

LA5 adopts worthy youth-oriented projects that it supports with a multiple-year commitment, serving as a leading financial sponsor and offering significant membership involvement. These projects are typically selected because the club believes that its participation could lead to more wide-spread community awareness and support for a very worthy endeavor. LA5 currently sponsors these major projects: Rotary Eye Rescue, Let Music Ring, and Children's Court. Past major projects have included: The California State Science Fair, Reading By 9, The Wheelchair Foundation International, Rotary Trails in Ernest E. Debs Park, and D.A.R.E.

LA5's newest major project provides music education and appreciation to 500 students in John Adams Middle School, and is a joint venture with the Pasadena Pops Orchestra. Study after study has proven that music education helps students score better in all academic areas, especially math and science. Yet money to offer classes in music and the arts has become increasingly scarce.

At John Adams, funding for music education was nonexistent. Nearly all of the 2,400 students attending this year-round school qualify for public assistance and come from families that are deemed well below "the poverty line." The campus is in a high crime / high-density area located just south of downtown Los Angeles. In most cases, this music program will be the first introduction to classical music and music education that these students have experienced.

Pasadena Pops Maestra Rachael Worby has created a special curriculum exposing these 6th, 7th and 8th grade students to the different sections of the orchestra: strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion. Professional musicians who are members of the Pasadena Pops Orchestra join her at the school to demonstrate sounds and texture with their instruments. The program is designed to follow the same group of students throughout their middle school years, and will offer in-school performances, lectures in music appreciation, and hands-on training. The Rotary Club of Los Angeles is supporting this innovative program with $150,000 in funding, and anticipates this program will garner support in other schools leading to the rejuvenation of a music curriculum in our schools.



Rotary Trails in Ernest E. Debs Park

Co-Chairs: Don Crocker and Carolyn DeVinny

LA5 had a strong desire to embrace an environmental project. After looking at the opportunities around us, LA5 adopted Ernest E. Debs Park, located in Northeast Los Angeles. This park is the site of the new Audubon Center in Debs Park, the first urban nature center established by Audubon. Audubon selected Debs Park because it has an abundance of wildlife and features walnut woodlands, which is a rare plant community. Over 50,000 elementary school children live within a 2-mile radius of the park.

LA5 is providing $150,000 over a 3-year period and is bringing in members, volunteers and organizations with which we have an affiliation, to make improvements to the park.

Our specific tasks are items that were specified on the City of Los Angeles Master Plan for the park, and include trail building, eradication of non-native / escaped exotic plants, native plant installation and other tasks to be determined. Trails will connect an existing public parking area serving the ball fields and the Native Terraced Gardens to an upper level picnic area. Another trail will have benches and a scenic overlook towards the city.

Trail improvements include trail building and re-grading where necessary to provide increased access for strollers and wheelchairs. These trails will help protect native vegetation and habitat by encouraging people to use the trails, instead of forging new ones.

In addition, the club has set aside $5,000 per year ($15,000) to fund activities and programs for volunteers in the park. Activities are planned to build awareness, respect for nature and a sense of ownership / stewardship to the projects.

LA5's Hiking Committee try out the Rotary Trail in Debs Park	Nichole Baker and Pearl Leeka take a break to enjoy the view in Debs Park

Chairs: Marc Leeka and Les Atchley

A group of LA5 members prepare wheelchairs for distribution in Baja. Clockwise from the bottom are President Janet Lindstrom, Pearl Leeks, Laura Thompson, Project Chairs Marc Leeka and Les Atchley.	Les Atchley helps a girl from Mexico into her new wheelchair.	A young man in Honduras celebrates his mobility with few friends. These all-terrain wheelchairs are designed for use on unpaved paths, with tires similar to mountain bikes.

The Wheelchair Foundation is dedicated to providing mobility to every child, teen and adult lacking mobility, but unable to afford a wheelchair. In July of 2001, Richard King, President of Rotary international (2001-2002) invited Wheelchair Foundation founder Kenneth E. Behring to make a presentation to the Board of Directors of Rotary International, during which King proposed a worldwide strategic alliance with the Wheelchair Foundation. Behring stated that the Wheelchair Foundation would match any contribution made by Rotarians, reducing the normal $150 cost to deliver a wheelchair from $150 per chair to only $75. RI's Board unanimously approved the alliance, and later that year LA5 adopted the Wheelchair Foundation as a new Major Project.

During year 1 of our 3-year commitment, any member of the Rotary Club of Los Angeles who contributed $100 or more to the LA5 Community Service Fund had a wheelchair donated in their name. The result was a $72,000 donation to the Wheelchair Foundation in 2002, which was used to purchase and deliver 960 wheelchairs, including 240 chairs that were delivered to the Convalescent Aid Society in Pasadena, CA. The rest of the chairs went to recipients in other countries, including Angola, Uzbekistan, Turkey and elsewhere. LA5 member Marc Leeka and wife Pearl traveled to Angola to personally deliver the first container of wheelchairs.

In the second and third year of support, Project Chair Marc Leeka made presentations to every Rotary Club in District 5280, garnering widespread matching support. By the time year three was coming to a close, 5,360 wheelchairs valued at over $804,000 were sent to these countries:

Afghanistan
Angola
Armenia
Croatia
Ecuador
El Salvador
Haiti
India
Iran
Israel
Lebanon
Madagascar
Mexico
Mozambique
Poland
Uganda
Ukraine
United States

If you would like support this worthy endeavor, visit the Wheelchair Foundation's web site at: www.wheelchairfoundation.org

	Project Chair Susan Kromka checks the2003 display of Christine Haas, who won Junior Category Project of the Year in 2002.

The California State Science Fair is a competition for students in grades 6-12 who have earned the chance to participate by winning awards in their local science fair. Beginning in 2001, on the 50th Anniversary of the fair, LA5 began a 3-year commitment of over $150,000 to this annual event held at the California Science Center.

LA5 worked with the Trustees of the California Science Center, the Muses of the California State Science Center, the Science Fair judges and Science Center staff. The goals accomplished included:
improving the experience of participating students during the fair
increasing fair awareness to our members, other Rotary Clubs in Southern California and the local business community increasing the value of new student awards and recognition · volunteer support and information

This highly recognized literacy program was developed by the Los Angeles Times and designed to help local children achieve grade-level reading skills by 9 years of age. Literacy is currently one of the most important social issues in our community. LA5 adopted Reading By 9 in 2000, with a 3-year commitment to the program of over $150,000. LA5 was instrumental in garnering wide-spread community support, including that of Goodwill Industries, The Salvation Army and other non-profits, education professionals, and book publisher Scholastic, Inc., which agreed to match book-for-book each new book ordered. Reading By 9 is currently widely supported and recognized for putting millions or recreational reading books into grade K-3 classrooms to encourage literacy.

D.A.R.E.
The first major project that LA5 adopted was D.A.R.E. (Drug Awareness Resistance Education) to teach school-aged children how to resist the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. This program is now widely used and respected worldwide.