Your TRF dollars make a difference -- globally and locally

Posted by Mary Kurth (Bloomington Noon), Global Grants Committee Chair; Carol Cline-Hedblom (Mpls. University), District Grants Chair
This Rotary year the Global Grants Committee approved eight global grants involving 22 District 5950 clubs. Two examples of how your TRF dollars are used worldwide include:
  • A humanitarian project provides potable water to 6,600 individuals, and safe sanitation facilities to 2,200 people in 20 communities in western Honduras.
  • Training and empowering the local community improves health care services to women and children during pregnancy, birth, infancy and early childhood in Bukoba, Tanzania.
District 5950 leveraged these 22 clubs’ $165,796 contribution 7.7 times for total project funding of $1,275,011. For more information contact Mary Kurth, Global Grants Committee Chair, at kurthpm@msn.com.
 
 
The District Grants Committee spent $192,538 in District Designated Funds on 45 projects -- 11 small international projects and 34 local projects -- totaling $430,914. Some of these included:
  • Gaylord contributed two play pieces to a large playground at the new elementary school.
  • Buffalo worked with senior volunteers of the Erv Schmidt Toy Shop to create wooden toys for children. The grant financed new saws and equipment so volunteers could dedicate all their time making toys rather than repairing equipment.
  • North Minneapolis and St. Louis Park Noon co-sponsored a Non-Rotary Partner Matching Grant. Working with the Nature Conservancy and Great River Greening, volunteers will plant 22,000 trees. Twenty-six clubs contributed to this project.
  • Brooklyn Park is participating in a Non-Rotary Partner Matching Grant with KPMG LLP, a world leading professional services firm. Their reading program in Title I schools (those with a high number of children from low-income families) helps ensure that all children meet challenging state academic standards.
  • St. Michael-Albertville is providing water fountains in the St. Michael parks where there currently are none.
  • Edina Morningside added to a Maple Grove project. Women refugees arrive in Uganda from war-torn countries with no means to earn a living for their children and themselves. Maple Grove provided a container filled with knitting and sewing supplies; Edina Morningside financed construction of a building where the women work.
For more information contact Carol Cline-Hedblom, District Grants Chair, at carol.hedblom@gmail.com.