Springfield Rotary Foundation

Grants to 12 Non-profits and Support for Scholarships, International Projects, and Honor Flights In May 2021, the Springfield Rotary Foundation awarded grants to local nonprofits for projects that combat hunger and promote literacy in our communities. We reaffirmed these needs as high priorities for our communities during our clubs most recent visi... oning process and in ensuing years. Our Clubs fundraising efforts through the Flag Service Program, John Montgomery Memorial Citrus Sales, and Club meeting fundraisers totaled $35,800. These funds allowed us to provide grants in support of 12 projects (described below), and to also set aside annual support for: The majority of our funds support local organizations that work every day to help people in our community in a variety a ways. Our grants are especially important this year given the hardships associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. This year, we are inviting some of the larger grant recipients to be our guests for dinner at a club meeting so we can thank these organizations for their work in the community and celebrate their grant projects. At our June 7 club meeting, we presented grant checks to Catholic Charities for St. John's Breadline (image above) and to Compass for Kids for food for their Backpack Feeding Program for at-risk children (image below). Descriptions of the funded projects are provided below. The Rotary Flag Service Project has been making our community red, white, and blue since 2016. We will begin deploying flags for the 2021 season to have them in place before Memorial Day (May 31). We leave the flags out from Memorial Day until after July 4. Then our volunteer teams retrieve the flags and return them to our warehouse. On Monday Aug. 30, a week before Labor Day, we deploy the flags again, retrieving them after September 11. Rotarys motto is Service Above Self and the Rotary Club of Springfield will be continuing the deployment of flags to honor those who have served in the military and all the people working very hard to care for our ...Read More