Albright Community Park:

the SW Durham Rotary Club recently adopted the Albright Community Park Association after touring Northeast Central Durham in fall 2009. The newly formed partnership is an effort to help the Community Association restore the high standard of living set by predecessors. El Centro Hispano, Habitat for Humanity, and the Department of Community Development also partnered with the Community Association to further impact this culturally diverse neighborhood by heightening community awareness and unity to reclaim Albright as one of the best places to live in Durham. Our current fundraiser will generate funds required to contribute to a KaBOOM!! grant, which was recently awarded to the Albright Community Park Association. KaBOOM!! has awarded grants for playground equipment nationally to more than 1,700 communities. The average playground equipment for a park the size of Albright site costs between $40,000 and $80,000. This partnership is yet another example of how neighborhood revitalization starts with community support, connecting resources, and building capacity at the grass-roots level.


Peace or Pieces:

the SW Durham Rotary Club has partnered with Peace or Pieces, an organization of Duke students, founded by Hillel, the Muslim Student Organization, the Arab Student Organization and the Jewish Student Organization in the wake of the last Israeli-Lebanese war, with the goal to conduct non-political relationship building and outreach among students of these different groups and their followings on campus. Peace or Pieces has raised about US$ 3,500 to this cause, which was matched by the SW Durham Rotary Club. The projects selected by Peace or Pieces with the help of local Rotary Clubs in the Middle East were the funding of hospital beds for a hospital/nursing home in Saida (Lebanon) and a water playground for mentally handicapped children in Haifa (Israel). Together with other contributing Rotary Clubs in Rotary District 7710, the SW Durham Rotary Club has submitted Matching Grant Application to Rotary International, in order to generate a total of $12,000 for the playground and $19,000 for the hospital beds - so the $3,500 by the Duke students will have seeded a total project volume of $31,000. The water playground is currently under construction and the hospital beds await final funding approval from Rotary International.

San Ramon:
our club is actively involved with various projects helping the municipality of San Ramon located 90 miles north east of Managua in Nicaragua. Of the 30,000 inhabitants, 26,000 live in remote hamlets. The others live in the town which includes a health clinic, library, school, and municipal offices. The people live largely by cultivating cash crops such as coffee, corn, and beans; by raising cattle; and by practicing subsistence agriculture. Unemployment and malnutrition are widespread, only 20% of school-aged children attend school. Currently we are working on a project to ensure a safe and continuous drinking water supply for the inhabitants of San Ramon. In the past we have funded a teaching farm for local farmers to learn soil preservation, fertilization from natural resources, selection of natural pesticides, and collective sales to get better prices for their products.


Durham Families in Need:

each year our club holds an auction to raise funds which are used to buy Christmas presents and food for families in need. The White Elephant auction is held during our regular meeting and members enjoy a festive event while raising funds to help many families celebrate the holiday. The club also participates in the Salvation Army Bell Ringing campaign.


Youth Support:

our club is dedicated to assisting the youth in Durham, particularly those who are economically disadvantaged. The club participates in the Rotary against Drugs speech contest and the Four-Way Test Essay contest.