Causes We Support

• American Legion – Blue Star Dinner
• Beautiful Self program for breast cancer patients
• Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative
• Boy Scouts
• Christian Health Care Center
• Community Meals for homebound elderly
• Disaster Relief for victims of Hurricanes, Irma, Matthew and Maria
• Family Promise of Bergen County
• Gift of Life—Sponsored child for heart surgery and a medical mission to train surgeons in developing countries
• Haitian college student scholarship
• Hawthorne Christian Academy – Servants of the King vocal group
• International Humanitarian Aid Foundation water purification program in Haiti
• Kasschau Band Shell
• King’s Pond Cleanup and Restoration
• Literacy Project – Distribution of encyclopedic dictionaries to 800 third graders in Ho-Ho-Kus, Ridgewood and Glen Rock
• Mahila Azizi Scholarship
• Military Family Assistance Center
• Operation Warm-Up
• Project Literacy
• Pwoje Espwa (Project Hope) orphanage and school in Haiti
• Read to Know program for preschool children
• Ridgewood High School Interact Club for 360 students involved in community service
• Rotary International Foundation
• Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) and RYLA Food Packing
• SaylesStock event promoting awareness of salivary gland cancer
• Scholarships for needy high school students
• Social Service Association of Ridgewood and Vicinity
• Thielke Arboretum
• Volunteer Center of Bergen County
• Walter D. Head Foundation
• West Bergen Mental Health Care

Helping scholars in need: Our club has awarded nearly $300,000 in college scholarships to 125 local high school students. We provide $1,000 a year for four years to each of three students each year. Because scholarships are essential to many students and their families, we have begun a special endowment campaign to expand our scholarship program in future years.

Developing youth leadership: The Ridgewood A.M. Rotary Club sponsors three community service organizations for youth—Interact at Ridgewood High School (RHS) and React Clubs at Benjamin Franklin and George Washington Middle Schools. These clubs give students the opportunity to learn organization and leadership skills by helping charitable causes in our area and overseas. The RHS Interact Club has 360 energetic members who spearhead dozens of major community service projects a year.

Better readers become better students: As part of Rotary International’s effort to support literacy, each fall members of our club personally deliver age-appropriate encyclopedic dictionaries to 800 third graders in Glen Rock, Ho-Ho-Kus and Ridgewood public and private schools. Research has shown that students who have their own dictionaries become better readers, leading to greater academic success.

Helping the hungry and homeless: Years ago, we launched a perpetual food drive where members bring donations of food and cash to our weekly meetings. The donations are delivered to the Social Service Association of Ridgewood and Vicinity (SSA), which assists families in need in eight surrounding towns. This year, we’ve partnered with King’s in Midland Park to deliver the supermarket’s donations of fresh food each week to SSA. The club also supports Community Meals, which delivers hot meals each day to the homebound elderly, and Family Promise, a sheltering program for homes working families. We partner with local churches to prepare dinners, entertain children and help with homework.

Clean water and the environment: Club members have joined Rotary District projects to clean Passaic River sites and the Ridgewood Wildscape Association to clean Gypsy Pond and the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook. This year, we received a Rotary District grant, which along with club funding, allowed us to join Ridgewood Wildscape to refurbish the 50-acre Kings Pond green space. For the second year in a row, one of our members circumnavigated Manhattan in her kayak, a 28-mile trip, to raise funds for clean water projects overseas.

Homes, shoes and coats: Over the years, members have supported and worked on site with Habitat for Humanity in building homes for lower-income families in Paterson and Waldwick. We have collected hundreds of coats for the needy in Paterson and Jersey City. This year, we are again collecting gently used and new shoes for Soles4Soles, a charity that supplies shoes to people in extreme poverty in Asia and Africa. Collection sites were conveniently located throughout Ridgewood, Ho-Ho-Kus and Glen Rock. Two years ago, the club collected 13,300 pairs of shoes, enough to fill an 18-wheel truck.

Gift of Life: Our club is active in Rotary’s Gift of Life program that provides life-saving heart surgery to needy children from countries where such sophisticated surgery in not available. We have sponsored and/or hosted 19 children and young adults since the program began. The club also has supported medical missions to developing countries where U.S. surgeons teach local doctors advanced heart surgery.

Disaster relief: When disaster strikes, we partner with Rotary clubs in affected areas with in-depth knowledge of local needs. This year, we have sent funds to aid victims of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. When Hurricane Matthew struck Haiti two years ago, we raised $25,000 to reconstruct facilities at Pwojet Espwa (Project Hope), Haiti’s largest orphanage and school, which members of our club helped found 20 years ago. Espwa was in the eye of this category 4 storm and suffered extensive damage. One member spent weeks on the ground in Haiti, helping start the rebuilding process for Consolation Center, a nearby orphanage for girls.
 

Supporting education overseas: Our club received a major Rotary International grand to provide buses that transport disabled students in India to a vocational school. We also have partnered with other Rotary clubs and charitable organizations to help fund new schools in Kenya and Cambodia. Our club contributes to scholarships allowing students from Haiti, Kenya and Afghanistan attend U.S. colleges.