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Current
Projects
The Rotary Club
of West Vancouver Sunrise has been serving the North Shore and
International communities through active “hands-on” involvement and
fundraising since 1989.
Here are some of our recent projects and activities:
Spring Fling Fund Raiser. The Rotary Club of West Vancouver Sunrise
held a dinner and auction fundraiser on April 25 to raise funds for the Lions Gate
Hospital North Shore Hospice fund in memory of Val Stephenson, a
member who passed away in April, 2008.
See Press Releases. As
well, some of the funds raised supported a volunteer group
providing free cleft palate surgery in the Philippines with Rotaplast International. See
www.rotaplast.org.
Re-opening the North Shore Youth Safe House. We participated as part
of the North Shore Service Club Committee that worked with the
community to get the North Shore Youth Safe House re-opened. It was
re-opened in December 2007 thanks to some great consolidated
community effort. Funding has now been committed both from the
Federal and Provincial Governments. For more information, see
NS Youth Safe House Update and
Press Releases.
Ethics and Values Program. Rotarians from many Clubs have
facilitated this program with Grade 8 and !0 students at Rockridge,
Sentinel, and West Vancouver Secondary Schools to consider ethics
when dealing with difficult or complex life situations. For more
information, see Press Release.
Shelterbox. In November 2008 our Club had a ShelterBox on
display at Park Royal Shopping Centre to raise funds for the
ShelterBox Project. The ShelterBox Project is about helping people
in their worst times to provide them comfort and a place to call
home for the period of time that it takes them to rebuild their
lives after a natural disaster. Since its inception ShelterBoxes
have been distributed to every continent except Antarctica and
Australia. For more information, see the
Press Release and link to
www.shelterbox.ca.
Polio Eradication. Our Club is participating in Rotary’s
US$200 Million Challenge to eradicate polio. After 20 years of hard
work, Rotary and its partners are on the brink of eradicating this
tenacious disease, but a strong push is needed now to root it out
once and for all. Rotary’s goal is to raise $200 million to match
the $355 million in challenge grants received from the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation. The resulting $555 million will directly
support immunization campaigns in developing countries, where polio
continues to infect and paralyze children, robbing them of their
futures and compounding the hardships faced by their families. For
more information on this program, link to
www.rotary.org.
Operation Red Nose. In conjunction with the provincial
sponsors -- BC Crime Prevention
Association, ICBC, and CTV - the four North Shore
Clubs and many community sponsors and volunteers having been providing safe rides home on the
weekends during the Christmas season. The service is free but
donations are welcome. All proceeds are used to support youth
programs on the North Shore. For more
detailed information, click on the “Operation
Red Nose” side tab and
press releases.
Seniors’ Christmas Lunch. For 18 years we have hosted
Seniors’ Christmas Lunch in conjunction with the West Vancouver Seniors’ Centre for
85 house-bound seniors. For the past two years students from the Ambleside Youth Centre and the Rockridge Interact
Club have assisted as servers, and entertainment has been provided by students from Collingwood
School. And thanks to the many community leaders who participated as
table hosts and to the Park Royal Shopping Centre for their
sponsorship. See Press Release.
Supporting Youth on the North Shore. In addition to supporting the
West Vancouver Youth Week and the Summer Work Experience project,
for the past few years our Club provided four $500 scholarships to students at Rockridge School and an
award for an art student. Our youth
Director is also very involved in working with students who are part
of the very active Interact Club at Rockridge. Interact is
affiliated with Rotary as an organization for high school students
who provide community service and/or raise funds for international
projects.
Youth Leadership Programs. In the spring each year the BC Rotary
Clubs sponsor students for a weekend leadership program for students
15 – 18 years of age . For more information see:
http://www.rotary5040.org
and select Youth Programs.
Klahanie Housing Project. Our Club participates on the Board of the
Klahanie Housing project, a project that Rotary provided the initial
seed money to establish this project. Over the years, we have
assisted the residents by helping to cleanup the grounds, clean
behind fridges and stoves, or host movie nights for the young
children.
Traffic Circle at the foot of the Lions Gate Bridge. As part of the
“Adopt a Highway” program, members from the four North Shore Clubs
maintain the grounds in the traffic circle on a monthly basis.
Rotary World Help Network Program. Over 30 Rotary Clubs in BC
support this non-profit, registered charitable organization that
co-ordinates the shipment of used and donated educational,
humanitarian, and medical supplies to countries in need throughout
the world. The shipments are always co-ordinated with Rotary Clubs
in the receiving counties. Clubs members frequently volunteer to
help pack the containers. In 2004 our Club arranged for a container
of clothing and supplies for an Orphanage and Technical School in
Honduras. For more information see: http://www.rwhn.org.
Group Study Exchange Program. As part of Rotary’s mandate to promote
world peace and international awareness, our District participates
in this program annually. The participants are non-Rotarian business
and professional men and women aged 25 – 40 who spend four to six
weeks here visiting various cities and spending time with people in
similar professions. In 2007 our Club sponsored Rosanne Ng of SFU
for the Exchange with Rotary Clubs in Thailand. The 2008 exchange
was
with Tanzania. For more information see:
http://www.gse5040.org or
Press Release.
North Shore Gogo SCRABBLE® FOR AFRICA.
The Rotary Club of West
Vancouver Sunrise is a primary sponsor of this event being held to
raise funds to support the Stephen Lewis Foundation’s Grandmothers
to Grandmothers Campaign. See Press Releases
and
www.stephenlewisfoundation.org.
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