Solving real problems takes effort, commitment, and vision. Rotarians work to protect communities from preventable disease, keep women and children healthy, improve education and economic outcomes, create safe water and sanitation infrastructure, and make our community and the world a more peaceful place. The Rotary Club of Chula Vista Eastlake’s grant support in 2019-20 will make a difference for a range of familiar programs and others that are new to our club in terms of grant support. Our club’s grant support was matched 100% by Rotary District 5340 for a combined total of $8,000.
Solving real problems takes effort, commitment, and vision. Rotarians work to protect communities from preventable disease, keep women and children healthy, improve education and economic outcomes, create safe water and sanitation infrastructure, and make our community and the world a more peaceful place.
The Rotary Club of Chula Vista Eastlake’s grant support in 2019-20 will make a difference for a range of familiar programs and others that are new to our club in terms of grant support. Our club’s grant support was matched 100% by Rotary District 5340 for a combined total of $8,000.
Our club’s grants include a $2,150 award to the Chula Vista Elementary School District’s Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) program. The allocation will provide funds for professional development for VAPA teachers, as well as supplies and equipment, such as instruments from Guitars in the Classroom. A formal, ceremonial check presentation to VAPA will be part of our spring “Hearts for Arts” event hosted by Chula Vista Eastlake Rotary. The Hearts for Arts event provides an opportunity to showcase student performances; Rotary members in turn have the opportunity to stage a community event with broad appeal and generate even more funds for club grants including CVESD’s VAPA program.
The other grants from the Rotary Club of Chula Vista Eastlake include support for:
- Casa Para Pobres Desamparados: This home for abandoned seniors in La Rumorosa, Mexico, is in great need of supplies as well as a new water tank, which had tumbled during last year’s winter storms. Our Rotary Club of Chula Vista Eastlake just recently signed a twin-club agreement with the Rotary Clubs of Mexicali Oriente and Mexicali Empresarial. Our joint project is to assist the home for abandoned seniors in La Rumorosa. Indeed, as our 2019-20 theme reminds, “Rotary Connects the World.”
- Food 4 Kids Backpack Program: This program from the San Diego Food Bank will ensure needy students in the Chula Vista Elementary School District receive Friday backpacks of food to ensure they are fed over the weekend. For some students, the Friday lunch meal in the cafeteria is their last full meal until school resumes Monday.
- RYLA and LEAD: Scholarships to attend Rotary youth leadership opportunities. Grant funds will sponsor two 8th grade students to attend LEAD, and two 11th grade students to attend Rotary Youth Leadership Academy (RYLA).
- South Bay Pumpkin Smash “Game of Throws”:The event engages school teams to develop a catapult to throw a pumpkin toward a specific mark. Students use their Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) abilities to create the catapults.
- TEDxKids Chula Vista: This program puts students in the “red circle” of TEDx events, helping them become polished public speakers. The event often has ties to a Rotary focus area, whether the environment or generally making the world a better place.
- Thousand Smiles Foundation: The foundation provides free life-saving surgeries and related health/dental care to underserved children at its clinic in Ensenada, Mexico. Grant funds support arts and crafts supplies for the children during their stay and/or dental hygiene products, food for volunteers, general operations costs.
- Watoto Wema Centre orphanage in Kenya: Our club previously donated money to purchase an industrial sized oven so that the center’s youth could have hot meals and learn a trade through operating a bakery. This year’s grant will purchase supplies, support hiring a teacher for the bakery and enhance sustainability. The Rotary Club of Chula Vista Eastlake will work with a Rotary Club in Nairobi on this project.
Over the years, Rotary has given back in countless ways, said 2019-20 Club President Anthony Millican. “Whether building homes in Tijuana, feeding the hungry here in San Diego, or donating funds to eradicate polio across the globe, Rotarians make a difference in their community and the world,” Millican said.