Rotary International - East Chapel Hill Rotary Club

The mission of the East Chapel Hill Rotary Club is to improve the health and welfare of the local community and beyond. The Club has a number of service projects it conducts on an annual basis to improve the education and social conditions of residents- local, national and International. It works directly with the East Chapel Hill Rotary foundation to carry out charitable and service activities in the community and other areas of need both domestic and beyond. The Club provides grants, often in coordination with the district, in areas such as for Rotary peace scholars or other relevant issues of interest to the group. It also sponsors several Rotary youth leaders to attend a leadership camp each year. In addition, Rotary provides fellowship and the building of goodwill among members through various Club events. The dues of the members totaling $103,270 are also used to support many of our domestic and International services projects along with contributions made directly by our members. From time to time we have some minor fundraising events but a substantial part of our program expenses are paid through our related foundation which also raises funds to support our charitable and service activities.

One of the major continuing service/humanitarian projects of our Club is our International dental mission. For the past two years we have held this clinic in nicaragua, also working with one or more of the local Rotary clubs. Over a week the dentists and their assistants and our members coordinate clinics for children and adults, many of whom have never seen a dentist and have a lot of deferred dental care needed. The Club takes all of the supplies and equipment needed for this dental clinic. In addition, a new project is to provide computers to some of the local schools in nicaragua which have no technology available for students. We work with our district and our local East Chapel Hill foundation to fund this important International project.the Club is considering working toward a more permanent dental clinic in the area where we currently have our temporary clinic.

The East Chapel Hill Rotary Club sponsors a teachers' supply store and ivnites approximately 500-600 local teachers annually to come and "shop" for supplies to be used in their classrooms. Each teacher receives a voucher for around $75 to use to purchase supplies or gift cards. Another service project is to purchase and assemble 100-120 bicycles to be given at christmas to local needy children. The Club gets grants and solicits sponsorships and donations, in coordination with our foundation, to support such projects. Each member donates a minimum of $100 per year to support our service projects and we also have a series of fund-raising projects annually to raise funds for support.this project is carried out in coordination with a local charity, the Chapel hill-carrboro public school foundation. Our contributions come partially through the East Chapel Hill Rotary foundation. We also fund a project which allows us to purchase and assemble a substantial number of bicycles for needy children in the community.