2009-2010 Annual Report

Philanthropy is Thriving in Traverse City Rotary Club

Giving to the community and region of its birth – and the world – has been a fundamental creed of the Traverse City Rotary Club since its founding in 1920 and naming of its first president, State Senator James Milliken.

“The notion of our club as a working one goes back to its origin,” reflects current President Beth Karczewski.  “In the mid-70s, with the discovery of oil and gas on our Boy Scout camp property and the formation of Rotary Charities, the easy thing would have been to sit back and let the royalties roll in.

“It’s obvious that’s not what happened.”

Longtime club member, Pete Strom, and the last living trustee of the first ten-member Rotary Charities board, remembers the advice given to Rotary’s original committee, charged with initial oversight of the unexpected gas and oil windfall.

He recalls the committee consulting with then president of the National Council of Foundations, Eugene Struckhof of New York. His advice, says Pete, was to not use Rotary philanthropy to fund club budgets. “If you do that” Struckhof told the committee, “you’ll take away club members’ desire to raise money. The community still needs to do that, and will be much farther along if Rotary helps fund brick-and-mortar facilities.”

That advice became a guide star.

Today’s club is a unique service organization with 274 members, 50 working committees and two additional Rotary organizations: Rotary Camps & Services and Rotary Charities. This affords plenty of opportunity for service in Traverse City Rotary and the club’s four main venues for charitable work:

• The Good Works Fund (from annual Rotary Show proceeds)
• Committee for the Handicapped (funded with annual Tag Day and Rotarian contributions)
• Rotary Gourmet Game Dinner
• World Community Service

Good Works Fund

One of the first programs developed under the region-wide Poverty Reduction Initiative is the Grand Traverse Laundry Project.

Started in 2005, the project’s 2010 grant request to Rotary’s Good Works Fund was for $5,000 to pay for the cost of washers and dryers in Grand Traverse and Leelanau Counties – a project that provides clean clothing for low-income families, impoverished seniors and indigent persons with disabilities.

“This is a perfect grant request that matches many of our guidelines,” explains Rotarian Chuck Downey, chair of the fund. “Our mission is to support projects that address unmet needs in already established priority areas within our club’s service area. In this case, one of our focuses is basic human needs.”

With revenue from the club’s annual spring fund-raiser, the Rotary Show, the Good Works Fund annually funds projects in areas like arts and culture, environment, families, health and safety, recreation, seniors, youth and the aforementioned basic human needs.

“Our guidelines are different from the more traditional Rotary Charities grant making,” Downey notes. “Not only is the grant timeline abbreviated, but the application form and requirements are more condensed and require less information.”

Over the past year, the Grand Traverse Laundry Project helped 881 families (2,162 family members) have clean clothes; along with 75 senior adults and 255 people self-identified as having a disability. Cost of the project was $30,107, covered entirely from donations and grants.

Downey points out that clean clothes are something most take for granted. “For those living in poverty, particularly during this economic downturn, it can be a challenge to meet this need.

“The broad impact a grant like this can make is particularly attractive to our Good Works Fund committee.”

Traverse City Rotary Club 2009-10 Good Works Fund Grants

Committee for the Handicapped

Whether it’s a pair of eyeglasses for a needy child, repairing a handicapped-equipped van for a special needs family, or assisting with tuition for a student to attend a special handicap camp, Committee for the Handicapped is its oldest standing committee.

With origins that date to the Crippled Children’s Fund, the present committee prides itself in its ability to assess requests and quickly respond.

“There are times when situations occur in families that are bigger than the family,” explains Rotarian Sally Erickson, who recently assumed chairmanship of the committee from its long-time head, Lee Olewinski. “And the reality is that as good as our humanitarian and social service systems are in the region, there are times when things fall through the cracks. That’s when oftentimes our nimble committee can step up and do what needs to be done.”

The committee raises about $22,000 annually for distribution to nonprofits supporting the special needs community, or responding to an individual request.

This year’s two-day Tag Day, in which the entire Rotary Club takes to the streets raising funds for the Committee for the Handicapped, raised almost $20,000 in donations from the public, as well as club member donations and match requests. As of mid-July this year, over $15,000 of that had been returned to the region in the form of grants.

Rotary Gourmet Game Dinner

Preserving the qualities that make the Boardman River the North’s premier fishing and paddling tributary to the West Bay of Lake Michigan, over $75,000 has been raised by Rotarians over the past six years.

The gourmet game dinner benefit responsible for this largesse was conceived by Rotarian and sportsman, Lee Russell. He recruited an enthusiastic and imaginative committee. Their formula of offering a sit-down gourmet wild game dinner in a country club setting, coupled with a featured Michigan wildlife artist and their auctioned work, along with an evening of raffles and special auction items – accounts for the growing popularity of the event.

Funds raised by the dinner are administered by Steve Largent, director of the Grand Traverse Conservation District’s Boardman River Project.

Proceeds from last year’s event funded two GTCD projects: restoration of five erosion sites along the north branch of the Boardman; and new interpretive signage at the Boardman River trailhead.

“The money raised by the gourmet game dinners has been critical to the continued restoration and protection of the Boardman River,” assesses Largent.

World Community Service

They often stage post-club meetings in the Park Place Dome, but the global activities of Traverse City Rotary’s World Community Service Committee (WCS) can take them thousands of miles from home to view firsthand projects in Third-World countries.

Tom Petzold, WCS chair, reports the committee supporting over 12 projects in six countries in 2009-2010. And this doesn’t include Rotary International’s (RI) ongoing global Polio Plus campaign.

With a focus on clean water, children’s health and education, building communities of self-sufficient entrepreneurs through micro-credit loans, and RI’s polio campaign, the committee used $35,000 to help fund these projects. “Much of this money was teamed with matching grants to double the club’s WCS contributions,” notes Petzold.

He’s particularly proud of the way the club answered a call for help from Haiti after that island country suffered a devastating earthquake last winter. In two weeks Tom said over $17,000 was raised to provide RI Shelter Boxes to house thousands of homeless Haitian families.

Presently, WCS is organizing distribution of over $25,000 in grants to five projects for 2010-2011. It will leverage $15,000 of matching grant funds set aside by Rotary Charities. These funds will then be used to fund worthy projects in Nepal, Guatemala, South Africa, and to support RI’s Polio Plus Campaign.

The effort is never-ending. But when committee members visit some of these countries, the impact Rotary giving can make is readily apparent. “These people are so appreciative of our efforts,” says Petzold. “So much can be done with our grant money. Even a small grant can make a tremendous impact.”