Make an Impact Today!

Make your 2017 contribution at colrc.networkforgood.com

We all know the tremendous power of Rotary to unite people around the world and change lives forever. There’s perhaps

no better demonstration of this “Service Above Self” than the generous financial and volunteer support Minneapolis City of

Lakes Rotary members make every year to our Foundation.

Have you ever wondered where your dollars will go this year? On the following pages, you’ll see just how significant our impact is throughout our community and internationally. Whether it’s bringing desperately needed water filters to

Haiti or delivering books to children learning to read, the funding you contribute is a vital investment. Help us continue this good work through your support.

Every gift matters! Thank you!

Patrick Joyce and Carol Russell

COMMUNITY SERVICE

The Sheridan Story –Weekend Food for ChildrenOur funds for The Sheridan Story, which leverages community and school partnerships, helps to fight child hunger. The goal of is to feed hungry children while developing a lasting relationship between the community and their school. This project enables approximately 56 students to receive a weekend’s worth of food every Friday afternoon for a full school year. COL volunteers stuff students’ backpacks on Fridays.

Second Harvest Heartland – Canstruction 2017 The mission of Second Harvest Heartland is to end hunger through community partnerships. In an innovative program called Canstruction, a joint effort of the City of Lakes Rotary Club and Kodet Architectural Group, food is purchased to create a “can structure” at Mall of America. The initiative helps build community awareness of local hunger through display of the structure for three days at MOA. All of the food is then donated to Second Harvest.

Jefferson School – Family Night Books Jefferson School is a K-9 school with more than 650 students, 78%+ are free and reduced-lunch eligible, 15%+ are homeless/highly mobile. Our funds are used to purchase approximately 400 affordable books for K-8 graders that are given away to families at the annual Jefferson School Family Night at the end of the school year. Families have a selection of books to choose from at the appropriate grade level for their student. These books give families a new book in their household for the summer.

Community EmergencyServices – Warm Hands, Warm Heads, Warm Hearts We provide 750 hats, mittens and gloves for children in need throughout eight social service organizations who distribute them into the community. Warm Hands, Warm Heads, Warm Hearts is an ongoing, yearly collaboration with other local rotary clubs to get thousands of hats, mittens and gloves to those who can’t afford to purchase them.

Hennepin County Corrections – Dictionary Project Inmates of the Hennepin County Corrections System are provided with dictionaries in order to improve literacy, prepare for the high school equivalency exam and keep as an educational resource. The books are used as part of the education and literacy/reading programs inthe Hennepin County men’s, women’s and juvenile facilities.

Reading Partners – Diverse Booksfor Minneapolis School Tutoring Reading Partners is a national nonprofit dedicated to closing the achievement gap by helping elementary students from low-income communities boost their reading confidence and competence. Reading Partners just finished up the second year in the Twin Cities, serving 450 students in Minneapolis and St. Paul schools with the support of more than 670 volunteers. The tutors work with students who are one month to 2.5 years behind in grade-level reading. The program functions by delivering a simple, structured series of lesson plans each week to help children gain lost ground. Our project focuses on three Title I schools in Minneapolis, to purchase approximately 1,000 diverse books for Reading Partners to give to its tutoring students to take home, building their personal library and continuing the learning. The students also complete a book report.

Community Emergency Services – Food Shelf and Logistical Support COLRC’s relationship with Community Emergency Services (CES) food shelf operation, a nonprofit crisis relief program, goes back almost a decade. With our help, the program has grown to now serve approximately 180 clients. We provide financial support for the food shelf home delivery coordinator position and help pack food for home delivery clients.

Minneapolis Council of Churches HandiWorks Program – Rake,Rattle and Roll Every Fall, MCOL rakes 10 to 15 yards for seniors, shut-ins and disabled people in South Minneapolis. Funds will also be used to purchase compostable bags for the project.

Ronald McDonald House –Serve a Meal Our funds will purchase ingredients or commercially prepared food to serve 60 to 100 Minneapolis Ronald McDonald House families one evening. COL members help cook and serve.

Way to Grow & Other Literacy Organizations – Literacy Champs Way to Grow’s mission is to ensure that every child has an equal opportunity to succeed in school and life. Their Great by Eight Early Learning program serves kids 0-5 through home visits by family educators who teach parents how to develop vocabulary, conversation, sound awareness and alphabet knowledge. The organization receives referrals from schools, churches and other community agencies to identify clients. Our funds are used for projects that come to our attention over the course of the year, such as two currently, and potentially more at this summer’s convention.

Literacy Project – Holiday Gift Drive Ronald McDonald Houses provides a comfortable and caring home-away-from-home that supports keeping families together and reduces stress during a child’s serious illness. Our funds are used to purchase gifts for the Holiday Gift drive for recipients who are left without a member to purchase their gift at the last minute.

ShelterBox USA Right now, around 85 million people around the world have been made homeless by natural disaster and conflict. ShelterBox is working to change this by providing emergency shelter and tools for displaced families to help transform despair into hope. They are striving for a world where no family is left without shelter. Our funds provide support for ShelterBox’s most pressing needs, which include deployments, administration and emergencies.

INTERNATIONAL SERVICE

World Vision –Honduras WASH ProjectWorld Vision is one of the world’s largest NGOs. The goal is the completion of water systems are gravity-fed systems conveying clean water to reservoirs (30,00 to 40,000 gallon capacity), which are then chemically treated, together with latrine facilities as needed, and followed up with hygiene education in the schools; also establishment of local organizations to assure the maintenance of the system. In more concrete terms, success is children not becoming seriously ill or dying due to contaminated water, which is a worldwide problem. The project which is expected to impact 15,000+ people who do not have ready access to clean water, will be a collaboration with the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa de Copan and World Vision Honduras.

Luisiana, Guatemala – Gravity – Fed Water Filtration Our funds will go to installing a water filtration system in the city of Luisiana, Guatemala, a stand-alone first community of 16 possible communities in the Wakami Project, coordinated by Guatemala East Rotary Club.

City of Lakes Rotary –Discretionary Grants Our funds are used to provide support to small initiatives that address water and sanitation challenges or other areas of Rotary focus, as well as having the ability to support requests from other Clubs, as appropriate, so that we can promote the District 5950 goal of collaboration.

Engineers Without Borders Minnesota – Honduras EWB The gravity-fed water system of the Oceanside community of Milla Tres, Honduras was severely damaged by an earthquake in 2009. Consequently, the Milla Tres population of 1,000 does not currently have reliable access to quality water. The EWB – a nonprofit humanitarian organization that supports community-driven development programs worldwide through partnerships that design and implement sustainable engineer projects while creating transformative experiences that enrich global perspectives and create responsible leaders – the Rotary Club of Puerto Cortes, COLRC, and Water Board of Milla Tres and the residents of Milla Tres are working together to design the system and construct the transmission pipeline.

City of Lakes Rotary – RotaryYouth Exchange District 5950 and 5960 coordinate and manage the Rotary Youth Exchange program as the North Star Youth Exchange. Approximately 60+ high school students from our geographical area travel abroad to any one of about 33 countries in the world under the sponsorship of a local host Rotary Club. In return, approximately 60+ students come to our area Clubs. Our funds are used to support and pay the expenses of a Rotary Youth Exchange student.

VOCATIONAL SERVICE

Twin Cities Rise –Strengthfinders CurriculumTwin Cities Rise assists individuals in poverty on the path to long-term and stable employment. Through internship opportunities, job search assistance and employment placement services, TCR works with participants to find meaningful employment and coaching that provides one-on-one support with participants for a year after they have landed their new job, with a focus on long-term results. With 81 percent of TCR graduates staying at their jobs, their 12-month job retention rate is nearly twice the national average. The TCR My Road to Success career development program is based upon building four foundational competencies – Personal Empowerment/Self-Awareness, Career Strategy, Workplace Expectations and 21st Century Life Skills – for individuals to achieve career and life success in the new economy. Our funds are used to purchase Strengthfinders books for students. Rotarians also have the opportunity to provide mock interviews.

Dunwoody – Youth Career Awareness Program (YCAP) YCAP is a hugely successful program that provides ambitious students an opportunity to check out various technical careers through active hands-on experience. YCAP has a good, long-term track record of graduating highly skilled vocational students into the workforce for a lifetime of income and employment in their chosen field. Our funds are used to purchase student bus passes for the summer and lunches for students.

Edina Rotary Club – Camp Enterprise The Edina Rotary Club leads an entrepreneurial camp every Fall with the support of Rotary volunteers from Clubs across Minnesota and Wisconsin. Camp Enterprise is an opportunity for students to take leadership positions in various Entrepreneurial Case Studies to discover their potential and dream bigger. Past attendees have said that this was their single best experience during their high school years. Our funds are used to sponsor four students from Minneapolis metro area schools to attend Camp Enterprise.

St. Paul Rotary – RYLA Rotary Youth Leadership Awards takes place every April. RYLA leads students to open up their potential and dream bigger than they ever have in the past. Our funds sponsor two students from Minneapolis area schools to attend Camp RYLA.

Minnesota Urban Debate League The mission of MNUDL is to empower students through competitive academic debate to become engaged learners, critical thinkers and active citizens who are effective advocates for themselves and their communities. Our funds are used to continue efforts at select partner schools in Minneapolis, including enlisting Rotarians to conduct outreach to students, teachers and parents; help judge debate rounds and prepare students for tournaments; furthering collaboration with MPS’s Office of Black Male Achievement; providing additional public transit tokens to encourage more consistent attendance; and increasing communication with parents to recognize student accomplishments.

Junior Achievementof Upper Midwest, Inc. JA BizTown is a 10,000 square foot kid-sized city within Junior Achievement headquarters in Maplewood. Several weeks of classroom learning culminates in a day-long visit to this fully interactive, simulated free-market lab. By working in one of 15 JA BizTown shops, students learn what it takes to run a successful business, manage a checking account and work as a team. Through daily lessons at their school, hands-on activities and active participation in this simulated community, students develop a strong understanding of the relationship between what they learn in school and their successful participation in a global economy. Our funds are used to allow participation of 100 students.

Make your 2017 contributionat colrc.networkforgood.com