Serving our community thru philanthropy and fellowship to make the world a better place at home and abroad.
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17000 Monterey St.
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December 2025

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What's New....
Rotary Grants for Non-Profits Recipients to be Announced in December

The Community and Hearts of Rotary grant application deadline was October 31. The final number of applications received was 76, just 4 shy of the record number received last year. The total dollar requested was $168,533, with the average request of $2,218. Grant applications will be reviewed in November and recipients will be notified in December.
 
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Rotarians Continue to Make a Difference 
Posted on Nov 08, 2024

For more than a century, Rotarians  bridged cultures and connected continents. Rotary members believe that they share a responsibility to take action to improve communities.

Rotarians from Morgan Hill and Freedom continued that mission and visited Mexico in November where they delivered books to an elementary school in Ameca, Jal. (where Rotary previously built a breakfast area); brought books to a downtown public library; delivered medical supplies to the local Red Cross; and had the opportunity to see a fire truck that several Rotary clubs had previously purchased for Ameca.

 

       
 

                 

The group was welcomed by local Rotarians in Ameca and Tequila when the Californian Rotarians visited both cities. Former Morgan Hill Mayor and Rotarian Steve Tate received the key to the city for Ameca, one of Morgan Hill’s sister cities prior to a diner hosted by Ameca’s city council.

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Ukranian refugee family finds a warm welcome in Morgan Hill with the Help of Rotary


Since fleeing their home in Kyiv on the brink of the Russian attack on Ukraine, Iryna and Dmytro Barchuk and their then eight-month-old son, Tymur, have been displaced and drifting. With the help of a network of nonprofit agencies, they found a home in Morgan Hill.

“When war started in my country, I had a situation,” Iryna said. “Near my apartment there was an explosion, in a five-story building. At that moment, I was at home with my son.

Read the full story in the July 10 issue of Morgan Hill Life

Morgan Hill Times May 22, 2024 issue: Students receive $26K in scholarships

The Rotary Club of Morgan Hill also recently awarded $26,000 in college scholarships to 24 local high school seniors, says another press release from the local club. 

The $2,000 Ralph and Rose Fitzsimmons Agricultural Scholarship for outstanding achievement and commitment to agricultural studies was awarded to Addyson Soderquist of Sobrato High School.

The $2,000 William Staples Music Scholarship for outstanding achievement in music studies was awarded to Aaron Orozco of Sobrato High School. 

Live Oak High School recipients of $1,000 scholarships for outstanding academic achievement were Sofia Barreras, Daniela Colorado, Yulissa Hernardez, Daniela Moreno, Veronica Orozco, Jennifer Ramirez, Jocelyn Ramirez, Ray Ramirez, Cristal Robles Carmon, Jasreen Toor and Vuu Phuong.

Sobrato High School students receiving the $1,000 academic achievement scholarships were Faith Fernandes, Stella Gaudy, Melissa Hansen, Rachel Hoge, Veronica Howard, Aiden Last, Paola Ledesma, Brian Naranjo Leon, Alyssa Mendoza and Khush Patel. 

Rotary’s Scholarship Committee is Mike Johnson (chair), Tracy Newquist, Craig Van Keulen and Mario Banuelos. 

Rotary Club of Morgan Hill is a part of Rotary International, a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards in all vocations, and helps build goodwill and peace in the world, says the press release. One major emphasis of the local club’s focus is on the community’s youth.

Rotarians Join Forces with Rebuild America

 
Under the leadership of Rotarians Judy Henry and Roger Knopf, Morgan Hill Rotarians once again joined forces with Rebuilding America to paint a mobile home for a local senior citizen.
Vocational Committee Helps FFA Students
 
 
Members of the Vocational Committee went to Sobrato High School the evening of January 23rd to help five Future Farmers of America students hone their interview skills. The students' teacher, Kayla Erath, has been meeting with the Vocational Committee and asked the committee to help the students prepare for an upcoming Job Interview contest. Madeline Bottari, Lee Crooks, John Kelley, Roger Knopf, and John Norgard volunteered to serve as judges for mock interviews as well as review and comment on the students' cover letters and resumes. The jobs that the students were "applying" for were a MIG Welder, a Veterinary Hospital Assistant, and a Forestry Industry Intern. Each interview lasted about 10 minutes and then the judges ranked the students and gave them feedback on their interview skills as well as their resumes and cover letters.
 
According to Madeline Bottari and John Kelley, all the judges were impressed with the students' skills and feel that the future is in good hands. The committee has enjoyed collaborating with Ms Erath, are impressed with her enthusiasm and passion for her students, and look forward to future endeavors.
 
Some may recognize the classroom in the photos as part of the space at Sobrato our Club refurbished back in 2018.
Visitors from Ameca
Our club hosted three visitors from Ameca, Jalisco, Mexico over six days. President Israel Cornejo, Past President Pablo Ortiz and Pablo's daughter Greta arrived on Tuesday Oct 25. Peter Anderson of the World Community Services Committee organized the visit and 39 Rotarians, families, and friends participated in one way or another in the planned activities. They visited and learned about Morgan Hill schools, wineries, city hall, the Steve Tate Library and Morgan's Cove as well as enjoyed wonderful meals at local restaurants and club members' homes. Out of town activities included a visit to San Juan Bautista, Monterey, and Santa Cruz.
 
Area 6 Project 2021
 

On June 12th, members of the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill hosted Rotarians from several of the Area 6 Clubs (Almaden Valley, Gilroy After Hours, Gilroy Sunrise, and San Juan Bautista) as well as staff from the El Toro Boys and Girls Club and other community members to clean up Galvan Park. In total, 52 volunteers participated. The work consisted of picking up trash, distributing mulch for weed control, and painting benches and trash cans. Volunteers enjoyed visiting with each other while having breakfast and coffee before buckling down to work. With the many helping hands, the work was accomplished in a little more than two hours. Those who could stay around enjoyed a grilled lunch expertly cooked by Morgan Hill Rotarian Brad Ledwith. The Rotary Club of Morgan Hill has adopted the park and will continue to maintain the park once a month.

Galvan Park was chosen for the cleanup project because the park is in an underserved area of our community and was one of our first City owned community parks. The Rotary Club of Morgan Hill was chartered in 1955.  Galvan Park was acquired by the City of Morgan Hill from The American Legion in 1962 under the leadership of then mayor, Tony Fazio.  Galvan Park has a long connection to the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill. Previously, the Club built a handball court, and improved the baseball diamond.  The Rotary Club of Morgan Hill also held its first Harvey Barrett Annual Free Senior Dinner for Morgan Hill seniors in 1987, at the Friendly Inn at Galvan Park, where the Boys and Girls Club is now located. 

 

The Rotary Club of Morgan Hill coordinated last Saturday’s work with Chris Ghione and Keri Russell from the City of Morgan Hill. City staff provided the mulch and are installing equipment donated by the Rotary Club (basketball hoops, additional BBQ pits, benches, and informational signs). The club also donated a volleyball set to the Boys and Girls Club.

 

 

The project was co-chaired by Club President Craig van Keulen, President Elect Terry Moriyama, and Rosy Bergin. Roger Knopf was indispensable for coordinating with City staff and organizing the work. We were supported by generous local businesses: McDonalds, A-Tool Shed, Johnson Lumber ACE Hardware, who provided food and supplies.

Rotarians helping with vaccinations
Rotarians have been volunteering for the past several weeks at a series of Covid-19 Vaccination Clinics held first at Sobrato High School and more recently at the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center. These have been the most regular series of vaccination clinics in Morgan Hill.
 
These clinics initially came about because former City Council Member Larry Carr, who works for Safeway/Albertsons Companies, wanted to help get teachers vaccinated to help get our schools open as well as serve the food service and agricultural worker sectors. Larry reached out to MHUSD Superintendent (and member of our club) Steve Betando to form a partnership between the School District and Albertsons Companies. The key benefit to this relationship was that the Albertsons Companies get their vaccine supply directly from the federal government. The original plan was to have 4 days of clinics at Sobrato.
 
The effort needed volunteers to help manage the vaccination clinic site, so Steve contacted Service Projects Director, John McKay. John recruited members of the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill to participate. John coordinated the volunteer schedule and Steve managed the Sobrato site creating a efficient and kind environment for volunteers and vaccination recipients alike. The volunteer effort was so effective that the Albertsons staff agreed to additional clinics and requested us to continue helping at these clinics. Rotarians responded by volunteering over and over again and bringing family and friends to help manage the vaccination site(s). When the second location at the Community and Cultural Center was added, John recruited other Rotarians to act as site manager for each day using the model that Steve created for as well as lessons learned during the Sobrato clinics. John McKay, Ken Tak, Mario Banuelos, Roger Knopf, Theresa Kiernan, and Victoria Battison have served as daily site managers. We are also partnering with members of the Morgan Hill Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) who are providing additional volunteers at the Community and Cultural Center site.
 
As of April 11, 18 clinics have been held, providing over 6500 vaccination doses with at least 3000 of those doses given to Morgan Hill residents and there are 16 more clinics scheduled in the coming weeks. If you would like to volunteer or are interested in sponsoring lunches for the early shift volunteers, please contact John McKay.
 
Thanks to all who have volunteered or sponsored a lunch!
 
This effort was covered in a Morgan Hill Times article on March 31st.
Remembering Orkeeswa
Back in 2017, a Rotary Club of Morgan Hill-led international project came to fruition. Our club worked with seven other Bay Area clubs and a club in Tanzania to secure a Rotary International Global grant to provide support to the Orkeeswa School.  Our very own Robin Shepard, though not a Rotarian at the time, wrote an article about the effort for the January/February edition of gmhToday - which can be found here (https://portal.clubrunner.ca/6773/Documents/en-us/c8b371e3-f36a-4e58-8793-7acf0089b1bb/1/). Recently, the students sent us a wonderful video thanking the club for all our support (https://youtu.be/NDg9sCcModI).