Grants

 

District Grants. The District had $59,354 available for District Grants in 2019-20. It was apportioned as follows:

•     $9,000 was set aside for the District International Outreach, this year in Columbia, SA

•     $1,283 was set aside for administrative expenses

•     $49,071 was available for District Grants initiated by clubs

 

Eleven clubs applied for District Grants, all were awarded. They were:

Bath - providing villagers in Cambodia with bio-sand filters to give them access to clean water ($8,300)

Boothbay Harbor - addressing food insecurity with a program of healthy eating, gardening, and creative play ($9,591)

Brunswick - building a bocce court for people with disabilities to promote physical activity and social interaction ($4,500)

Brunswick Coastal - renovate and equip a school-based food pantry as an alternative to the current backpack method of distributing food to students in need ($3,000)

Damariscotta-Newcastle - constructing an ADA-compliant walkway connecting the community green with a river nature walk ($5,350)

Kennebunk - purchasing backpacks to hold school supplies and clothing for children in need (part of a much larger program entitled, "Level the Playing Field") ($1,000)

Kennebunk Portside - working with town’s Parks & Recreation Department to purchase and install a community skating rink ($4,000)

Portland Sunrise - restore and renovate a much-used community center ($1,780)

Sanford-Springvale - upgrade a new trail by building bridges and boardwalks, adding educational interpretive nature signs, and printing maps and brochures ($2,000)

Westbrook-Gorham - build and install water filtration systems for a village in Guatemala devastated by a tsunami ($4,550)

Yarmouth - connect an upland trail section with bridges and boardwalk over a wetland ($5,000)

Brunswick Coastal was unable to carry out their grant proposal and returned the money. $2,500 of it was approved for a District Grant application from the New Voices Rotary Club for a tick education and prevention program in conjunction with RYLA and Camp Hinds.

Two clubs (Brunswick and Portland Sunrise) had not been able to spend all of their District Grant money and pursuant to Rotary Foundation rules were allowed to repurpose these funds for Covid-19 related relief.

 

Nothing was spent from the administrative expense line.

In April, the Committee voted to use all of our left-over DDF cash ($1,782) to contribute to a project for Safe Passages in Guatemala City to provide food relief to the families and children living in the dump. Because of Covid-19 the dump and the Safe Passages school were closed so the families were in desperate need of food and supplies.

 

Global Grants. At the start of the year, the District had $131,689 available as DDF credit to match Global Grants. The following amounts of DDF were used to match club cash contributions from District 7780 clubs for the following Global Grants.

•     $7,714 to upgrade a maternity ward in Bulgaria (Yarmouth)

•     $2,000 for an eye service center in India (Portland)

•     $5,716 for an irrigation and clean water check dam in India (Sanford-Springvale)

 

In addition, as of May 1st DDF has been set aside for the following Global Grant applications if they are approved in Evanston:

$2,000 for a solar-powered lab in Haiti (District 7210)

$16,250 for a Covid-19 response project in Zambia (South Berwick-Eliot)

$1,100 for a clean water project in Costa Rica (District 7170)

$1,000 for a check dam in India (District 7870)

$10,000 for manpower development and training in Jordan (Biddeford-Saco)

 

In March, the Foundation Committee voted to transfer $26,338 of our Global Grant DDF credit to the Polio Plus Fund. (The Rotary Foundation had asked Districts who were able to do so to transfer 20% of their DDF to fight Polio - we were able to meet this request.

 

 

1. Review the grant requirements, i.e., this email.
2. Reply to this email indicating you want to opt in or opt out, not later than April 30^th.  [today would be good…]
3. Checks will be snail mailed to participating clubs during the first week of May.
4. These funds may only be used for combating food insecurity issues, e.g. food pantries, meals-on-wheels, and other charitable meal programs. Additionally, if you provide funds to a food pantry or other meal program that is operated by, or sponsored by, a church, you must ensure that the meal services and food are available to all persons in need, regardless of their religious affiliation.
5. These funds may not be used to reimburse your club for previous expenses incurred.
6. A final report (an email) must be submitted to our District Foundation Committee not later than June 15^th. Your club must retain this report and its supporting documents for five years. Your report should include:

As of the date of this report, Rotarians and clubs have donated $177,552 (97% of goal) to the Annual Fund and $45,447 (87% of goal) to Polio Plus. Per capita, our Annual Fund giving is $110.21. Three clubs have not given to the Annual Fund yet this year; nine clubs have not yet given to Polio Plus.

 

Eighteen clubs have reached an Annual Fund per capita giving of $100 or more. They are:

 

The Foundation Trustees ask each club to donate at least $1,500 to Polio Plus each year. This year so far eight District 7780 clubs have met that challenge. They are:

 

As the Rotary year ends, many of these figures will change and a final report will be available sometime in August or September. Often, there are many last-minute donations and it usually takes the Rotary Foundation staff in Evanston some time to arrive at final figures.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

District Foundation Chair

 

Hi Marie, please find a submission for the Grant Story you requested.  I’m also enclosing a picture.

Thanks.

 

The Rotary Club of Bridgton-Lake Region has a long history of conducting service projects and providing support to the lovely people of La Romana, Dominican Republic.  So, after three members of our club joined another group of Rotarians in February, 2015 on a work trip, and another member accompanied students from the Interact Club in April, 2015, we were again energized to do more. In May, 2015 we began writing a District Grant to send a team of Rotarians and Interact students to provide new bathrooms at two schools, implement hygiene training and deliver school and personal supplies.  We were thrilled to get this grant approved and received $4,516 from the Rotary Foundation, which empowered us to complete this project.  The list of participants grew over the year and we set off on April 18, 2016 with 22 volunteers, aged 13 to 75!  The group was made up of Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Bridgton-Lake Region, students from both Lake Region High School Interact and Fryeburg Academy Interact, Molly Ockett Middle School EarlyAct, and local professionals.  On the La Romana side we partnered with the La Romana Rotaract Club, an energetic group of young professionals who handled a lot of the groundwork before we arrived.  During the week, we were able to build a new, two room bathroom at a large school, repair a two room bathroom at a smaller school, clean and level a school playground, implement hygiene training programs at both schools, and deliver 1,100 pounds of supplies to approximately 300 students and 8 teachers.  Overall, 1,000 man hours of volunteer service were invested in one week.   More importantly, many lives were touched and, in particular, the Interact students expressed a desire to return and continue service work in the future. Without the support of the Rotary Foundation we could not have completed this incredible project. 

 

Picture submitted by Cathy Sullivan - Grant Dominican Republic