Sarnia-area Rotary Club offering funding for local projects
A Rotary Club in Sarnia is asking to hear from local organizations about projects needing funding.
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A Rotary Club in Sarnia is asking to hear from local organizations about projects needing funding.
The Rotary Club of Sarnia Bluewaterland accepts applications each spring and fall for its community grant program. Requests can be submitted online at www.rotarysarniabwl.org until March 31.
Club member Sharon Berry Ross, chairperson of a committee reviewing the applications, said it tries “to get as much money back into the community as possible.”
Money for the grants comes from the club’s fundraisers including its recent used book sales, Rotary Art in the Park, bingo and selling memorials at the Flag Plaza near the Bluewater Bridge.
Last fall, the Rotary grant program supported Bluewater Health Foundation’s Totes for Hope, Victim Services of Sarnia-Lambton, the Petrolia refrigerator program, a local French language school, Habitat for Humanity, the Mitton Village community project, Lambton Public Health and a brain injury association.
“We encourage applications from a broad range” of organizations, Berry Ross said.
“We just try to keep a pulse on the community and try to meet some of those needs.”
Typically, the program attracts 10 to 15 applications each spring and fall, she said.
The service club focuses on education and literacy, environment, scholarships, basic needs, including alleviating hunger and suffering by those with limited resources, and patient services
Committee member Marie Watson said individual grants have ranged from a few hundred dollars up to a few thousand.
Rotary Club of Sarnia Bluewaterland, a 26-member service club, has been around for more than three decades, Watson said.
“It’s nice to give back to the community that comes out and supports our fundraising,” she said.
“There certainly are a lot of good organizations out there that are in need of funds and that’s why we like to put it out to the public” to encourage applications, Watson said.
Club president Dale Wilcox said its recent used book sale held during a few weekends in the greenhouse at DeGroot’s Nurseries in Sarnia had more than $40,000 in sales and saved 20,000 books from potentially ending up in landfill.
Books left following the sale were donated to several other initiatives including little free lending libraries, a Grand Bend Rotary Global Literacy Project, a local church hosting a book sale this spring, Value Village, Talize, St. Vincent de Paul and Goodwill, Wilcox said.
“We can’t thank the community enough for their support in donating books and then buying back others,” she said.
“From this, we are now able to launch into our spring round of grants to local organizations.”
Wilcox said the book sale is scheduled to return in 2025.
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