Projects

Each club dedicates itself to use all funds raised for service projects within the local community as well as participating in projects around the world. There are 1.25 million Rotarians in 33,000 clubs - each club setting its own goals and completing them in its own style.

In addition to specific club projects, Boulder Flatirons Rotary supports The Rotary Foundation, which funds projects to promote world peace and understanding, such as: Youth Exchange, Ambassadorial Scholarships, Group Study Exchanges, Peace and Conflict Resolution Fellowship, and PolioPlus.

The Boulder Flatirons Rotary Club focuses its service activities in three main areas: community service, international service and vocational service. Locally, we support a number of activities which help our community, including:

Recent District 5450 Simplified Matching Grants were awarded to: Attention Homes & Intercambio (see below):

Attention Homes provides temporary housing and counseling for at-risk youth in transition. Its motto is "Attention, not Detention." Besides financial assistance, club members helped with the reconstruction of one of the homes, we provide dinner to residents once a month, donate books and other necessities and are available as mentors.

Intercambio's mission is to build understanding, respect and friendship across cultures through educational and intercultural opportunities. Founded in 2001, we are an independent nonprofit organization that has spread its model across the country, serving over 10,000 people. 

"Intercambio's focus on cross-cultural exchange through language education serves as an inspiring example for other communities as they work toward better cross -cultural understanding." Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior

Justice High School is a charter college preparatory high school designed for young people who might otherwise be neglected by the educational system. Its mascot is the phoenix and its motto is "Rising Above the Ordinary to Achieve the Impossible." In 2008, we helped a team of students raise enough money to travel to Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica, to build a library and launch a literacy program for residents. Later that year, the club established two $500 scholarships for students between their junior and senior years, to be used to earn the college credits required for graduation. The 2010 recipients are Chantel Trevarton and Tricia Degere. Chantel and Tricia will participate in the Colorado College Summer Scholars program in Colorado Springs.Chantel, pictured at left with JHS prncipal Jeremy Jimenez, will also be attending the 2010 RYLA sponsored by BFR.

Internationally, we work to address Rotary International's areas of emphasis: clean water, health and hunger, and literacy, and to complete the work begun in 1988 to eradicate polio from the planet.
Specific projects supported by Boulder Flatirons Rotary include:

• Escuela la Minga (pictured below) is a school in the mountains of Ecuador built by a retired Boulder teacher. We have found numerous ways to help, including donations for the construction of the new school, subsidies to pay teachers and matching grants from Rotary International to bring fresh water to the region.

  

• The Global Education Fund encourages worldwide literacy. Financial support from our club will help the organization's efforts inKenya.

• Multiple wells have been dug in several villages in rural India, financed through a grant involving a dozen other clubs in Colorado with funds matched by Rotary International.

• Uplift International provides funds and volunteers to assist teams of medical professionals in their work to repair children's cleft palates and other disfiguring afflictions.

Vocational Service projects include RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) and Young RYLA. This year, members of all three Boulder Rotary Clubs brought the 4 Way Test into the Boulder middle schools through a three-way partnership involving Rotary Clubs in the Boulder Valley, Boulder Valley School District, and the YMCA of Boulder Valley. Our relationship with Justice High School offers opportunities to serve as mentors to these young people. We are involved with Greenhouse Scholars, an organization that provides scholarships, mentors and professional liaisons for "under resourced" high school graduates. Finally, we are sponsors of Rotaract at the University of Colorado (for college students and individuals under 30) and Interact in Boulder (for high school students).