Bladensburg Rotary Club
Chartered - March 20, 1959
Service Lane Updates
CLUB SERVICE LANE
Club Service - The Bladensburg Rotary Club's main fundraiser is our annual golf tournament, which raised over $12,000 this year. Our focus is on new membership and our theme is "Each member brings a new member". The Club won several awards at the most recent District Conference, including Best Mid-size Club and Best President. We have interesting speakers at our meetings, which has helped keep our attendance level strong. We have a very active membership with excellent participation in the many avenues of Rotary service. - Mike
COMMUNITY SERVICE LANE
Fund Raisers (our club members are involved in several events to raise funds for our many Community Service Projects)
Community Service Projects (the above listed Fund Raisers allow us to perform these projects).
VOCATIONAL SERVICE LANE
The Bladensburg Rotary Vocational Service Projects for 2005-2006 were:
1. An on-going Scholarship Program that helps worthy high school students in our area. The entire membership helped to raise funds through our golf tournament and other fundraisers to provide four $1,000 scholarships for high school seniors.
2. For the past six years, we have been the main sponsor of the RYLA Youth leadership program. The Chairperson/Coordinator comes from our club. Several of our members also Chair several RYLA Committees. This year we sponsored four students.
3. Vocation in the Work Place project is chosen so that Club members can visit a business that contributes significantly to our local community. This year's "field-trip" visit was to Lamar & Wallace Lumber, Co., a family-run business that is a great contributor to the building industry,providing 85-100 jobs and generating millions to our economy.
4. Elementary school "Discretionary Fund project." The seven elementary schools in our area receive $500. (each) to provide emergency money to cover fees for needy students to attend field trips or receive incentive awards. In addition, three of these elementary schools were receipients of a new $1,000. --"Rotary Cares School Supplies Project." These three schools determined that their special needs included: backpacks, composition booklets, paper and art supplies, as well as grooming kits.
5. The Technical Academy Outstanding Students Awards in Culinary, Cosmetology and Nursing Assistant Programs. Each recipient received a $50 stipend and a plaque honoring them for excelling in their respective areas. - Eolia
WORLD COMMUNITY SERVICE LANE
It's a Boy!... and a Girl!
We're happy to announce that the Bladensburg Rotary Club is now sponsoring two children in an orphanage in Kabul Afghanistan. Hopefully, the Kabul Orphanage which is supported by Afghan Relief Fund will send us pictures of the boy and girl soon.
The Bladensburg Rotary Club World Community Service Lane has several projects in Afghanistan:
1. The water project in Paktika Province has generated much interest in our district. The project objective is to dig a well which would provide clean water to a farming village of approximately 5,000 people. An oversight committee in the village is being set up to manage training on well maintenance and protection. The council will also provide education on basic hygiene practices, hand washing, food handling, avoiding contamination of the water source, and will serve as a liaison with neighboring villages. An honorary Rotarian living in Annapolis, Ms. Fahima Vorgetts, courageously travels several times a year to this increasingly dangerous region. She was able to procure the site and negotiate with the village council of elders to dig and care for the well.
2. Our Club was also able assist in the formation of a new Rotary Club, Logar Province Rotary Club, which which will serve as our in-country sponsor for the water project. Though not officially chartered, the Logar Club, is doing great Rotarian work. It is a very active club, providing leadership and supplies for a local orphan sponsorship program in southern Afghanistan, providing computer, English, and sewing classes, as well as much needed school supplies to the community. Members take their lives into their hands to attend weekly meetings as car bombs are a common event in that region. We are currently waiting for the Asia Rotary International office in Pakistan to approve the charter of the new Rotary Club in Logar. We are being assisted by Rotarian Cliff Chan, Manager of Club and District Support - Asia/Pacific who has contacted Shakil Hasan Ansari, (Asia District Governor 3270), requesting a prompt review of the charter application. When the Logar Club is chartered, we will be
cleared to apply for a Matching Grant from RI for the currently un-funded $15,000 water project.
3. This year the Club has also sponsored two children in an orphanage in Kabul. The eight year old girl, Fatimah, and the twelve year old boy Khwajar, both lost their fathers during a bombardment of northern Kabul by the Taliban. The Club's sponsorship provides for the feeding, clothing and education of these two children, as well as providing trade classes like auto-mechanics, painting, carpentry, sewing, and embroidery.
4. Last year's donation of 60 sewing machines to the Afghan Relief Fund Sewing Program for Widows continues to reap many rewards. Our donation jump-started the sewing program, which has now developed into full-time classes to teach widows to sew. Each woman is given $30 a month to help support herself while she takes classes, and at the end of the three-month program, each widow graduates with a new manual sewing machine and the confidence to begin her new career selling clothes in the marketplace. Aside from giving these women confidence in themselves and a means to earn a living, the program has created a much-needed environment for women who are traumatized by war to spend time together in a safe, supportive environment.
Sincerely,
Beyhan Trock, AIA
World Service Lane Director
Bladensburg Rotary Club
