21 organizations received funding over the past year from the Rotary Club of Philadelphia’s foundation

By Jay Pennie

Celebrating its 110th anniversary, the Rotary Club of Philadelphia continued its extensive outreach into the community by awarding grants to 21 organizations that fall within Rotary International’s areas of focus: supporting education, promoting peace, fighting disease, providing clean water, and improving local communities.  

“It’s always inspiring for me to see how we can help the community and learn about the amazing work of these organizations. I’m always learning something new,” said Kurt Stroemel, President, Rotary Foundation of Philadelphia.    

With an initial donation of $1,000, the club’s foundation was established in 1965 by generous and visionary new club members. Today, the foundation grants about $30,000 a year to organizations in need, both locally and internationally. 

“We want to express our utmost gratitude for the grant of to support our Hungry to Healthy Initiative, which provides food to all community members who need it through our daily food pantry, monthly community meals, and senior meal service,” said David Chiles, Executive Director, Lutheran Settlement House. 

“It is because of people like you that Play On Philly! can do the work that we do for our amazing students and families,” said Jessica Zweig, Program Director who oversees high-quality, intensive music education for hundreds of underserved youth in Philadelphia.   

In the local community, the Rotary Foundation of Philadelphia’s outreach efforts help to:

• Provide new instruments for the Drum Corps at Olney Charter High School.

• Purchase books for the library at the John B. Kelly Elementary School.

• Provide basketball equipment, academic supplies, program apparel, and healthy meals for the female empowerment initiative at Philadelphia Youth Basketball.

• Support the English for the Restaurant and Everyday educational program at The Garces Foundation.

• Provide vocational/technical scholarships for students in need through the Arthur Judson Education Fund which was recently established after the passing of Arthur Judson II, Past President of the Rotary Club of Philadelphia. Members of the Chestnut Hill and Philadelphia clubs joined forces to establish a fund to honor him extensive work in Rotary and the community.

• Provide 50 new winter coats to impoverished children in the Philadelphia area through the Auto Dealers Association of Greater Philadelphia Foundation’s Driving Away the Cold program.

• Support peace and conflict resolution programs at Peace Day Philly that focus on efforts from global issues to end wars to locally breaking down barriers between youth and police.

photo credit: Daniel Kontz, Play On Philly!

• Support teaching artists at Play On Philly! that provides high-quality music training to Philadelphia’s underserved community.

• Sustain the expansion of the string orchestra through Musicopia’s award-winning program that serves economically disadvantaged children in the local community.

• Purchase 10 Amazon Fire Tablets for Telehealth Access for Seniors, Inc.’s program so that seniors in low-income communities can connect with their physicians, families, and friends during COVID-19.

• Provide books for new library at Liguori Academy, a school that serves low-income student in the Kensington section of Philadelphia.

• Provide training for young adults with disabilities to come together, learn new skills, build community, and prepare for life after high school at Next Steps Programs, Inc.

• Support creative educational activities including science, technology, engineering, math, and art at Federation Early Learning Services.

• Provide supplies that support families who are going through the stress and trauma of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit through Today Is A Good Day’s signature program.

• Purchase food and other supplies for the Lutheran Settlement House’s Hungry to Healthy initiative.

• Provide intensive college preparation and support for low-income students through Brighter Horizon Foundation’s program.

• Provide printed educational materials for UnEarthed Penn’s program that develops, produces, and distributes free to public elementary schools in Philadelphia.

• Purchase Thanksgiving dinners for patients’ families in need at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.

• Purchase food for families in need in Philadelphia, distributed through the Rotary Club of Southwest Philadelphia-Eastwick to their community.

Rotary Club of Philadelphia members teamed up with Rotary Club of Southwest Philadelphia-Eastwick leadership and volunteers to set up, pack, and distribute food.

In the international community, outreach efforts helped to:

Support building a conduction line through Engineers Without Borders USA’s program that provides clean water to residents of Aldea Las Lagunes Cuaches, Guatemala. “This community is without safe drinking water and cases of waterborne ailments, such as diarrhea and skin illnesses are on the rise,” according to Kaitlin McGee, representative from Engineers Without Borders, Philadelphia Chapter. The conduction line is the first step in providing clean water to more than 3800 residents.  

In addition, the Rotary Club of Philadelphia members provided funding for Polio vaccines for children in Pakistan and Afghanistan where wild polio cases are still reported. This funding supports Rotary International’s campaign to eradicate the deadly and crippling disease from the planet.  

“I want to thank the board of directors of the foundation for their continued work that utilizes their knowledge of local and international matters to identify areas of need, and together work to improve the community,” said Stroemel. 

If you are a Rotarian, I hope that you are proud of the work that we do. If you are not yet a member, contact us to join.

Find out how you can become a member of the Rotary Club of Philadelphia or make a donation to the Rotary Foundation of Philadelphia.