Stittsville Rotary - Then and Now

The Stittsville Rotary Club was formed in Stittsville in 2004 as a result of 28 Community members who felt that the presence of Rotary was required in Stittsville. “Service Above Self” is the Rotary motto and the Stittsville Club endeavors to continually meet this challenge. With a small group we have been able to address several needs within the area, while recognizing the importance of a global presence and bringing the needs of the world community to the local level.

The Stittsville Rotary Club has been the catalyst and participant of all of the following projects;

1.       We provided and built picnic tables and a Gazebo to the West Ottawa Women’s shelter so the residents could sit in comfort and shade while supervising their children during play.

2.       We were the first partner to a Community Veterinary Outreach program – providing veterinary supplies to a mobile unit that serves the pets of disadvantaged members of the community. This program is being considered as a national initiative to help look after the pets of the disadvantaged who serve as “Best Friends” to their owners.

3.       We were the first Rotary Club in the region to recognize the need for the “Youth Drug Treatment Centre” and the first to fundraise within the Community to assist in the budgeting issues of the program.

4.       Our Club created a program with the local elementary school to have the youth of the community understand the needs outside of Stittsville . Stittsville Public School created several fundraising ideas including “candy kisses” to raise enough money to provide two Shelter Boxes to serve the needs of numerous people in distress in other parts of the world.  The work of the school and our Club was recognized by the founder of the program, Tom Henderson, who presented an award to the school at a special ceremony in Ottawa.

5.       We are part of the Ottawa area Clubs who have provided funding and resources to create nationally renowned  Ottawa Rotary Home - a place where severely handicapped youth (to age 21) can go for specialized respite care to give their family a break.

6.       Partnered with the Ottawa area Rotary clubs to create the  Rotary Park of All Abilities that allows physically challenged people to use the park and also allows physically challenged parents to participate in their child’s park experience.

7.       We host a yearly “Trivia Night” that serves as the “kickoff” to the Stittsville Winter Festival. The trivia night allows almost 200 members of the community to come together for a night of fun while supporting causes within the community.

Our most recent project is the building of a Library and Community Centre in Luweero Uganda. We are working with the community and schools to collect books and supplies for this underprivileged area of the world.  We are partnering with the local youth group “Kids helping Kids” to have the youth of our community coordinate a “book pick up day” to help fill the shelves.  Our library will serve a catchment area of 40,000 people who have a literacy rate of less than 30%. Our local schools are preparing to be “Internet Pen Pals” for the kids of Luweero and we are hoping to facilitate this with computers and internet through the addition of a reliable source of solar power and donated computers.