Rotary foundation supports local club

Sisters Rotary Club is a year-round contributor to the community of Sisters. The local club provides polio vaccines for children, book bags for elementary school children, swim instruction for third and fifth graders, scholarships for graduating Sisters High School seniors and more.

Internationally, the Rotary Club has immunized 2 billion children against polio.

The Sisters Rotary Club provides another service through their nonprofit arm, the Rotary International Foundation.

"We want people to know Rotary is a place for giving for the community," said Rotarian and CPA Lance Brandt of Capstone CPAs. "Donating to your favorite organization through the Rotary Foundation is a way to make a tax-deductible contribution."

The foundation also has been able to give to the club to support the community in some way.

"Every year Rotary gives $1,000 to $3,000 in scholarships. We contribute to Magical Voices, and the funds go to the school's music departments; we buy heaters for the community tent, and defibrillators for the school," said Bill Anthony, Foundation President. "A lot of the projects are local, some are international. Locally we also work with Kiwanis and Food Bank to benefit the community."

The foundation supports all the local Rotary events.

"Our local Rotary Club of Sisters' main mission is community service, and the way to help the community is to provide a nonprofit where they can make a donation, give back to the community and get tax deductions," Anthony stated.

Anthony discussed a recent endowment, a donation set up for a specific cause.

"An anonymous donor gave $8,400 to Sisters Rotary to help families who, through no fault of their own, have a problem paying their rent," Anthony said. "We donated the money to FAN to distribute locally."

The community's generosity of spirit helped a local Rotarian.

"When a Rotary member had a serious skiing accident," Anthony related, "Sisters High School organized a fundraiser to help. The donation was made through the Rotary Foundation. We're another avenue for people who want to give to their community to do that."

"We are very willing to work with other local agencies to do community projects and to create projects. We are all doing the same thing and it's important to work together," said chapter president Craig May.

"We received a matching funds grant from our district Rotary office for Ten Friends to buy 68 water filters for Nepal. We have applied to get those funds matched again for the same project and are hoping to ultimately bring in $16,000 (up from the original $3,000 from the club and $5,000 from the district). Water projects are a part of what Rotary does. We partnered with a Rotary Club in Nepal who is monitoring the project."

Ten Friends has long been a part of the Sisters community. Founded by Rand Runco and Mark LaMont, the program has grown to help improve the quality life for many people in Nepal.

"Ten Friends is a local organization and we think what the teachers are doing is important. We started by sponsoring 10 orphans in Nepal to go to school for a year," May said.