Foundation awards over $56,000 in grants
Over $56,000 in grants from the Lakewood-Rocky River Rotary Foundation will be used to provide scholarships, recognize student achievement, purchase dictionaries for third graders, and help fund worthy programs by community organizations.
The awards focused on three main areas – community health and wellness, food and nutrition, and programs that encourage and foster youth leadership.
The Rotary Club of Lakewood and Rocky River will award $10,000 in scholarships to high school seniors, and presented $4,750 to student winners in the club’s annual speech, music and art competition at the Beck Center on March 21.
The Beck Center received $2,500 for visual arts scholarships, and $2,040 was used to continue the club’s commitment to provide a dictionary each year to every third grader in Lakewood and Rocky River.
Lakewood Community Services Center received a $3,350 grant for its “Toward Employment” job training program. Cornucopia Inc. (Nature’s Bin) was awarded $2,000 for vocational training.
North Coast Health Ministry received two $2,500 grants; one for seed money for an on-site laboratory, and the second, for fuel, food and prescription gift cards for patients. Trinity Lakewood Community Outreach received $2,500 for its food and produce distribution programs.
Grants of $1,000 each were awarded to Recovery Resources, Bridge Avenue School, Lakewood Charitable Assistance Corporation, Lakewood Meals on Wheels, Rocky River Meals on Wheels, Rocky River Education Foundation, Hospice of the Western Reserve, HUGS Foundation, Barton Center, Rocky River United Methodist Church’s Free Store, and Lakewood Child Care Center’s produce program.
Matthew’s Lending Library received $1,600; Elle’s Enchanted Forest, $1,500; Rocky River Assistance Program, $1,500; Girls With Sole, $1,500; Help to Others, $1,500; Lakewood Commission on Aging, $1,200; Lakewood Schools Foundation, $1,162; and Rocky River Senior Center, $600.
Six American Youth Foundation scholarships of $450 each were awarded for Lakewood and Rocky River high school students to attend leadership camp this summer.
The Foundation’s assets grow each year as the result of gifts, donations and bequests by members and friends of the club.
The local club was chartered in 1926. Rotary International is the world’s first service club organization, with more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs in more than 160 countries worldwide. Rotary, along with its partners, has reduced polio cases by 99 percent worldwide since its first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.