Information about our club

 Rotary Club of Highlands Ranch
List of Club-Sponsored Activities and Projects
November 8, 2011

Annual Gala Fund-Raiser - The Club plans, organizes and conducts an annual fund-raising Gala which involves planning a catered sit-down dinner for 150+ , securing corporate sponsors, obtaining silent and live auction items, selling tickets to attendees and providing entertainment.  The Gala Committee members devote over 1000 hours of volunteer time each year in planning this event.  The most recent Gala netted over $35,000 for the Club’s various local, national and international service projects.

Rotaract -  The Club acts as mentor and sponsor of a local Rotaract Club.  The DTC Rotaract is an organization of young adult professional and business leaders who are involved in various community service projects.  This Rotaract Club has already organized and conducted several activities, including an Auto Show and fund-raiser,  Kits for Kids, Crutches for Africa and Climb for Shelter Boxes.

Project Cure - An international program, Project Cure collects, sorts and ships donated medical supplies to third-world countries who are in desperate need of such materials.  Club members donate their time each month to sort these supplies.

Rotary Youth  Exchange - The Club has hosted a large number of foreign students for a full school year, with host families providing full room and board, financial support, social nurturing and a total “home away from home” American experience to these young people from abroad.  The Club also sponsors American students who travel abroad to study.  Our Club currently hosts a student from Finland and sponsors another from ThunderRidge High School who is studying in Germany.

Project Warm Hearts - Since 2008, the Club has sponsored a project to provide families of deployed U.S military service members from Ft. Carson, CO with financial support for hardships not covered by other aid, In partnership with the Evergreen Colorado Rotary Club, our Clubs have provided over $28,000 in aid to these families.

Highlands Ranch Rotary Foundation Inc. - Funds raised by the Club are distributed through grants from our own charitable foundation. Among the recipients for fiscal year 2011-2012 to date are:

Women’s Crisis and Family Outreach Center - Capital improvements - $1,000 cash + $1,000 matching District funds.
Inter-Faith Community Services - Food for families in need.$2,000 cash + $2,000 matching District funds.
 
    Kanhangad, India - Providing potable water for four schools.$1,500.00
    Sports Made Possible - $1,000.00
    Inter-Faith back to school promotion - Supplies and backpacks - $1,000.00
    Hekima Place - A school in Africa for orphaned girls - $1,000.00 + $1,000.00 matching RI funds.
    The Conflict Center  $100.00
    Foreign Exchange Student - Living Expenses - $1,975.00

Very often, Club Foundation grants are matched by the Rotary District 5450 funds and by the Rotary International Foundation, which can effectively double or triple the ultimate amount given to the recipients.

Interact. -  The Club acts as mentor and sponsor of several Interact Clubs at a number of local middle and high schools.  Interact is an organization of middle-school or high-school aged students involved in various community service projects.  Currently, clubs are active at Highlands Ranch High School, Mountain Ridge Middle School and ThundeRridge High School.  Recent projects include a Halloween candy distribution, a food drive to benefit Interfaith Community Services, a hand-crafted jewelry sale to benefit African school children, tutoring 3rd and 4th graders in reading and math, collecting toys for Santa’s Workshop and a musical performance for Highlands Ranch senior citizens.

Polio Plus. - For the past 25 years, Rotary International has sponsored a drive to eradicate polio worldwide.  The Highlands Ranch Rotary Club has been an active financial supporter of these efforts since their inception.  To date, Rotary worldwide has collected and donated over 500  million dollars and together with other world health organizations is responsible for vaccinating over 2 billion children.  This program has successfully eradicated polio in all but a few  geographic areas of the world.

Interfaith Community Services. - Our Club has been a long-time supporter of this organization, which provides food, shelter and job placement assistance to families undergoing severe financial hardship.  In addition to substantial annual financial support, Club members volunteer their time annually to collect and sort food donated by customers at local King Soopers stores for Interfaith’s food bank, to deliver holiday food baskets to home-bound seniors, to provide school supplies to needy elementary and middle-school students.  Members also participate in an annual Mini-Golf fund-raiser which benefits Interfaith.

Dictionary Project. - The Club purchases and donates over 500 dictionaries annually to third-graders at six elementary school in Highlands Ranch.  Club members personally deliver and hand out these dictionaries to the excited students, many of whom don’t have access to a dictionary at home.

Guitars for Troops. - The Club has financially supported this local organization which ships brand new guitars and accessories to active duty U.S. military service men and women many of whom are recuperating from wounds suffered in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The troops claim that these guitars have helped tremendously in their healing process.

Homes for Troops. - The Club is a financial supporter of this national organization, which, though donated funds, materials and services,  constructs fully handicapped-accessible housing for severely injured military veterans.  These specially designed houses enable our vets, often paraplegic or quadriplegic, to lead lives which are as independent and normal as possible.

Paul Harris Fellowships. - The Paul Harris Fellowship Award, named after the founder of Rotary International, is given to any Rotarian who donates $1,000 or more to the Rotary International Foundation.  We are extremely proud of the fact that 100% of our Club members in fiscal 2010-11 were Paul Harris Fellows and we expect the same will be true for 2011-12.

Social Activities. - Our Club is definitely not an “all work and no play” organization.  We have a very active social agenda for members, including attending numerous sporting events, concerts, plays, holiday parties, business after-hours socials, get-acquainted dinners and even a Carribean Cruise organized by one of our members who is a travel agent.

Scholarships. - Our Club recently initiated a monthly scholarship award program, which recognizes high-school senior students in Douglas County who have a record of outstanding scholastic and extra-curricular achievement.  The students are recommended by their school counselors and selected by our Club’s scholarship committee.  Each monthly winner is eligible to compete for an annual award of $500.

Weekly Programs. - At each weekly meeting we invite a speaker to present a 30-minute program on a wide variety of topics of interest - ranging from Douglas County property taxes, to Clean Water Projects in India, to Baseball programs for handicapped children.  Being Program Chair is one of the most demanding and time consuming jobs in our Club as it involves selecting, scheduling and coordinating programs weeks and months in advance.

Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (“RYLA”). - RYLA is a program which sends 10th and 11th -grade local area students to a week-long leadership conference in Estes Park where they are taught leadership and team-building skills by highly-respected business leaders and professionals who volunteer their time and expertise to train our future leaders.  Highlands Ranch Rotary Club sponsors a minimum of 4-6 RYLA students each year at a cost of $500 per student. A number of our members also volunteer to be student counselors at these events.

Young RYLA. - This is a program similar to the regular RYLA, but for middle school students.  Our Club also sponsors several students annually for this program as well.

Annual Peach/Pear Sale. - Each year, our Club holds a sale of delicious Palisade-grown peaches and pears, the proceeds of which fund our RYLA programs.  The Peach Committee is responsible for coordinating sales, collecting payments, ordering peaches, scheduling delivery and overseeing the distribution of over 250 boxes of fruit to customers.

Western Welcome Week. - Another annual fund-raising project, our members staff a beer booth at the Western Welcome Week celebration and parade, held in downtown Littleton, CO.  A good time is had by all and the event also raises substantial amounts of money for our Club.

Weekly Newsletter. - One of our members devotes several hours each week managing “The Wheelspinner”- our weekly Club newsletter, which keeps members informed of Rotary activities on the Club, District, National and International levels.  Individual Club members also submit articles relevant to our many Club projects and functions.

Membership. - One of our most important activities is to continually search for qualified prospective new Rotarians and once located, invite them to visit and perhaps ultimately to join our Club.  Our Membership Committee and especially its chair, devotes a tremendous amount of time in selecting,  recruiting, inducting and mentoring new Club members.  Each new member is also assigned to an experienced Club member who serves as the new member’s personal mentor.

Family of Rotary. - Joining our Rotary Club is like joining an extended family.  Club members give generously of their time and resources to assist other members who may be having a difficult time due to serious illness, family emergency, death of a loved one or financial or business setbacks.  They also are the first to help celebrate happy events such as the birth of a grandchild, graduations, birthdays, weddings, or promotions.

Public Relations. - The Public Relations Committee members are constantly seeking out opportunities to inform the community about Club activities and service projects.  This involves developing media relationships, publishing articles about Club activities and members, taking photos at events to accompany articles and to provide a chronicle of the Club’s past projects and accomplishments.

District Service. - Rotary District 5440 encompasses some 67 individual clubs located along the front range and throughout the state of Colorado. In addition to their contributions of time, talent and energy to our own Club, several members are also active at the District level.  Their District duties often demand as many or more hours of a member’s time as do their home club activities.

Group Study Exchange (GSE). - T he Rotary Foundation’s Group Study Exchange (GSE) program is a unique cultural and vocational exchange opportunity for young businesspeople and professionals who are in the early stages of their careers. The program enables teams to visit with similar vocational groups of different countries. For four to six weeks, team members experience the host country's culture and institutions, observe how their vocations are practiced abroad, develop personal and professional relationships, and exchange ideas.  Highlands Ranch Rotary Club has hosted a number of these exchange groups and one of our members is the current chairperson in charge of this program at the District level.