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.