At the June 22 club meeting, Bruce Harville, President of the MBR Foundation, presented gifts to eight non-profit organizations for projects in keeping with the Rotary ideals. Of the $3500 total, 40% comes from investments, the rest from outright gifts.
Emily Auerbach represented UW Odyssey. The grant will provide books and other activities to kids in the Junior program. Odyssey, in its 18th year, has been going strong on line during the pandemic. 97 percent of the Odyssey students are students of color. Students go from homeless to Masters Programs. In mid-March, laptops were rented from the UW and now they are determined to have laptops in the Fall for everyone. She sees tremendous economic and technology gaps in the students.
Patricia Eldridge, from the Middleton Outreach Ministry, said the money will be used for the food pantry and social services, especially eviction help. They also need paper products, personal items, soap and tooth paste.
Tom Kobinsky represented the Madison Reading Project. Since the pandemic hit, they have been bringing sanitized bags of books to the Boys and Girls club. which are delivered there with food. The grant will help with the sanitizing of the book bags.
Gary Muldoon represented Books are Power, which sets up libraries and computer labs in Kenya and Uganda. With the grant, they will purchase 5 computers.
Janet Tupy of ReMitts said the group, which started in 2009, makes and sells mittens. 100% of their money goes to food pantries. The wool sweaters and wool yarn are all donated. They also make pillows and dryer balls. The grant money will be used to purchase lining for the gloves. They always have need for 100% wool sweaters and yarn, and old nylons.
Randy Sproule said Rubin for Kids gives out scholarships to needy and deserving kids starting at Madison College. The tuition at Madison College is $4500 a year and they donate $1500 in year one and year 2.
Thom Weiss, of Books for the World, said their mission is to improve global literacy. 100% of
their work is done by volunteers and 95% of their expense is the shipping to Houston. The grant will go toward the next shipment.
their work is done by volunteers and 95% of their expense is the shipping to Houston. The grant will go toward the next shipment.
Judy Levine spoke for Andrea Chaffee of Madison Ice. The grant money will go toward purchasing skates and sleds for sled hockey. Madison Ice has several adaptive skating programs for disabled kids. Vic Levine coaches a skating program for autistic kids.