As president of the Longmont Rotary Charity Fund, Charlotte Tyson explained that today’s meeting serves as the annual meeting as well as the business meeting of the Fund. This presentation will also be shared at the Longmont Satellite club meeting this month.
The Longmont Rotary Charity Fund was started in 1982 as a separate 501 3c organization with tax exempt status. The Charity Fund is separate from the Club but is affiliated. There are two components of the Charity Fund: 1) Endowment - provides sustainable funding for the future needs of the community. 2) Current Needs - helps meet the present needs of the community. Anyone who is a member of Longmont Rotary is also a member of the Longmont Rotary Charity Fund. You can become a sustaining member by donating at least $100 per year to the Fund and pledge cards are available. At the end of 2020 there was a fund balance of $579,000 for the start of 2021; the total giving in 2020 was $45,000. The Charity Fund ended the 2021 year with a fund balance was $642,544.
The slate of nominees for the board to serve 3-year terms for 2022-24 was presented for a vote by the members. John Caldwell, Sue Connelly, Ken Cline, and David Wright were unanimously elected. Dave Ferro, as past president of the Club, serves as an ex-officio member of the board. Charlotte thanked Fred Williams for his long-time service as he left the board at the end of 2021.
In 2021, the Longmont Rotary Charity Fund gave a total of $41,988 in grants:
$5,988 to Rotary programs and projects, which included $3,000 for the Winter Warmth program and $3,000 for the Fishbowl matching fund. Fishbowl funds were distributed
to Mountain States Children’s Home, Meals on Wheels, PolioPlus, Winter Warmth, and Cinnamon Park.
$7,000 to community programs and projects, which included $1,000 to Born to Read program, $1,000 to Boy Scouts, $2,000 to Recovery Café, and $3,000 to El Comite de Longmont.
$26,000 to COVID relief grants were distributed to food service and EHS employees
($200/person) at Longmont United Hospital, Longs Peak Hospital, Cinnamon Park
Assisted Living and Hover Home Assisted Living.
$3,000 to District matching grants. Elder Share has been selected as the recipient for 2022 for $3,000 grant and will be submitted to the District resulting in a total of $6,000.
Edwina Salazar joined Charlotte and highlighted and further detailed the community programs and projects, showing numerous photos of many of the participants and activities of these programs. Rotary’s reach and care was realized throughout the community as a result of these programs.