Rotary’s “Make a Difference Day” is Saturday, October 26.
This year we will make our difference by assembling packages of food at Kids Against Hunger of Central Indiana, located in Noblesville. We will pack food from 9am until 11am for distribution both locally and globally. Children even as young as 5 can participate. Contact Norm Melzer at normmelzer[at]gmail.com for details and to sign up.
Join Team Rotary on Saturday, September 28, 2013. 3-7 p.m. for this year’s Pedal for Peace.
The event will take place at Major Taylor Velodrome, a world-class bike racing facility that was built for the Pan Am Games 3649 Cold Spring Rd.
Our team is “Indy Rotary” and is open to all Rotarians, families and friends. Last year we had about 15 bikers who had a wonderful time taking turns riding the track, visiting and enjoying food and fun.
Donations from team participants will provide a school lunch for over 400 children for an entire year in Kenya AND help leading pantries procure 75 tons of food for hungry Indianapolis area residents. The recipients of the lunch would not be in school at all without the lunch so the gift is so much more than just food for these children.
How do you get involved?
Go to “Register to ride.”
Our goal is for each rider to raise at least $100 for the cause – donations can be made thru the website or brought the day of the event.
F.I.D.O. (Friends of Indianapolis Dogs Outside) Guinness Book of World Records for Most Pet Food Donated in One Week (Sept. 22-29)
ROTARIANS! How can you help F.I.D.O. break the World Record of 13,000# of pet food donated in one week? Sign up for a shift to be a witness for this event! Or, bring a bag of Purina dog or cat food (or any brand of canned dog or cat food) to the Sept. 24 Rotary mtg. and will “retrieve” it from you after the meeting!
Other Options for donating food. There are several sponsors throughout Indianapolis who can take your monetary or food donations. Please check out this link. NOTE: Please FIRST call the sponsor to see whether they are taking food, money or both.
Shifts available: All activities are held at F.I.D.O headquarters, 456 N. Holmes Ave. in Haughville, 2 miles west of downtown, on the SW corner of Michigan St. and Holmes Ave. You’ll receive a volunteer packet and a cool t-shirt complete with the Rotary logo on it!
Sunday, 9/22, from 11:30 – 1:30
Sunday, 9/22, from 1:30 – 3
Friday, 9/27 from 7 – 8:30 PM
Saturday, 9/28 from 12 – 2 PM
Contact Marie Koenig, F.I.D.O. Treasurer and Supplies Coordinator, by Sunday, Sept. 15. koenigmarie55[at]gmail.com. Phone: 509-0525 THANK YOU!
F.I.D.O.’s Mission Statement: Improve the quality of life for outside dogs, especially those animals that are chained or neglected, by finding alternatives to continuous chaining.
Our programs include:
Outreach, Case Management, Humane Education, Fence Projects, Supplies Distribution, Humane Trapping, and Managing the Indianapolis Pet Food Pantry at FIDO headquarters, 456 N. Holmes Ave. in Haughville.
To address the growing need for pet food subsidies to Indianapolis residents, FIDO established and manages a dog and cat food pantry. Proof of low-income status and spay/neuter for each pet is required. For clients who are in financial need, free or discounted spay/neuter options are provided. In addition to providing dog and cat food to clients for their own pets, we distribute cat food to feral/free-roaming cat colony caretakers each month. By year-end, we will have distributed 90 tons of pet food.
On Friday, August 16, Rotarians “Thought Global,” tested their knowledge of world trivia and competed for great prizes with lots of other donors at the annual Taste of the World Timmy Trivia event. Everyone ate delicious international cuisine prepared by Second Helpings and drank locally crafted beer pairings from Flat 12.
Rotaract’s goal was to raise $6000 and they surpassed that number by raising $11,000 to benefit lots of lives for Timmy Global Health. Way to go Rotary and Rotaract!
The Rotary club was well represented by purchasing two tables! Please thank Rotarians Scott Armstrong, Jeff Lake, Lauren Scheldrup, Debbie Hyde, Stacey Blanton, Patrick Broccolo, and Greg Albright.
And, a special thank you to ALL of the Rotaract participants and organizers who made this event possible, including President Tyler Droste, Chris Bean and Grant McCoy!
The Healing Hearts Through Art is a program designed to provide tangible memories to organ and tissue donor families during their time of grief and sadness. Families of adult donors are provided with a poem on card stock paper with their loved ones hand print. Families of pediatric donor families are provided with the poem/hand print as well, in addition to a Model Magic hand print of their child’s hand. School-age and teenage children are provided with an opportunity to express themselves and talk about their loved one through the use of beads, in our legacy bead program. Families truly enjoy having tangible memories of their loved ones. The Rotary Club of Indianapolis Civic Entrepreneurship Grant is helping to sustain this program so that donor families continue to receive these gifts.
On May 8, 2013, Rotarians and others helped with JA BizTown, an effort lead by Rotarian, Lauren Scheldrup. There was wonderful feedback from the teachers and students. Knowledge and experience is invaluable to students and JA cannot thank Rotarians enough for their support.
If you are ever interested in volunteering in the future, Junior Acheivement of Central Indiana is always in need of JA In-School, JA BizTown and JA Finance Park Virtual volunteers.
Here are few of the testimonials from that day…
I want to say a special thank you to Lauren and Sheila for encouraging me to do this. This was a great way for those students to learn a number of important academic and life skills by doing something that the young people obviously enjoyed. It was good to see the enthusiasm, cooperative attitudes and desires to do well that my group exhibited. While I do not know how much I contributed to their learning, it was very interesting and fun to be part of the process.
Tom Mason
Greetings All,
It was quite fun to spend time with kids on a well run and thought out program. AND, the time with my fellow Rotarians was quite enjoyable! Well done all….
Cassie Stockamp
I was impressed with how well run and organized everything was and the kids and volunteers were great. We were glad we participated.
Robyn Crosson
Dear Fellow Rotarians,
Please allow me to add my sincere thanks to all of you for helping us foster JA’s mission of inspiring and empowering young people to own their economic success. JA of Central Indiana will make a difference in the lives of over 15,000 students this school year, and your support as volunteer mentors is what makes that possible!
I look forward to many future opportunities to work together to support our wonderful community.
Jennifer Burk
I would also like to thank all of you for volunteering in our JA BizTown simulation We appreciate you taking the time to lend a hand to JA, and in helping us to guide our areas youth to believe in their potential.
On October 22nd, Rotarians helped Teacher’s Treasures on “Make a Difference Day” by collecting school supplies and monetary donations to purchase school supplies for Teachers and Students. There were over 20 boxes of supplies collected, in total $2,200 in monetary donations! Thank you, Rotarians!
On October 17th, 2011, a group of Rotarians visited the Simon Family tower at Riley Hospital for Children to view the finished family lounge completed with funds from a $1M donation from members of the club.
In 2009, the last contribution towards a 5 year pledge of $1M was completed. This stems from a challenge by Rotary International to honor the centennial of Rotary which occurred in 2005 with a large project. The Rotary Club of Indianapolis chose to meet this challenge by partnering with Riley Hospital for Children and providing $1M for a family lounge that would include kitchen facilities, internet hookups, and as much comfort as could be afforded to families with children being served by the hospital.
It should come as no surprise that the Rotary Club of Indianapolis partnered with Riley Hospital. Early in the history of the Rotary Club of Indianapolis, the club’s members helped found the Riley Hospital for Children, and it bears the name of a famous Indianapolis Rotarian James Whitcomb Riley.
96 Rotarians, record 900 Senior Boxes, record 1950 Back Sacks. Woo-hoo! And our NEWEST Rotarian, C. John Brown, who we just approved at the board meeting last week, attended with his son and had a good time! It was a good day! Good mix of officers, seasoned Rotarians, new Rotarians, and newly elected board members (Orion Bell, Bill Bubenzer, and Mike Howard). Those in attendance were: Beth Hallowell, Bill Batt, Bill Bubenzer, Carole Darst, Chad Lund, Charlie Bell, Charlie Meyer, Daniel Taylor, Dave Warder, David Gregg, David Lewis, David Yeley, Janet Harris, Jeff Lake, Jennifer Hobbs, Jim Boots, Joe Gaafar, John Brown, John Roesch, Judy Stewart, Katte Hanner, Kendall Millard, Kevin Etzkorn, Kitte Allen, Lisa Jeff, Lucia Carter, Lynnette Hanes, Matt Burnett, Matt Will, Melissa Farmer, Michael Joyce, Michael Schiele, Mike Howard, Mike Shanley, Mo Wildey, Murvin Enders, Nathan Connor, Norm Melzer, Orion Bell, Pat Garten, Ramona Adams, Robyn Crosson, Scott Tant, Sheila Carlson, Susie Harmless, Tom Fisher, Tony Pearson.
By Brenda Jackson. During this past holiday, our Christmas Party with Riley Kids provided at least 200 Riley kids a gift (see all the photos at SmugMug). Due to the overwhelming response and generosity from our Rotary members, the original goal of giving 100 gifts, was doubled! The Plea Tree was the second tier of our Rotary Christmas with Riley Kid’s Project.
This is a wonderful example of service above self. Making a small difference in child’s life and family this Christmas season – thank you to all who participated.