West Bend, WI (March 16, 2011) – The West Bend Sunrise Rotary Club has selected Interfaith Caregivers as the recipient for their Spring 2011 $15,000 Give-Away fundraiser. The event will be held May 5 at West Bend Mutual Insurance Company’s Prairie Center.
The $15,000 Give-Away is designed to help one or more not-for-profit charitable 501(c)(3) organizations in the West Bend area. The objective of the award is to assist the organizations accomplish a creative project or begin a new service. Recipients may not use this award for profit-making, administrative costs, or staff salaries or benefits.
Criteria for selection included the ability to provide a unique service not widely available in the community; the impact the project would have on an underserved portion of the local community population; and meeting Rotary’s 4-Way Test: (1) Is it the Truth? (2) Is it Fair to all concerned? (3) Will it build Goodwill and Better Friendships? and (4) will be Beneficial to all concerned? Interfaith Caregivers will use the funds to purchase an additional van to transport Washington County seniors to needed medical appointments. The need for such transportation for seniors through Interfaith Caregivers tripled between 2009 and 2010.
“Choosing from among the 14 organization who submitted applications this year was difficult. The need in the community is obviously growing, and we are grateful that we as a Club are able to assist in this need,” said $15,000 Give-away Event Chairperson Erich Olson.
Tickets for the $15,000 Give-Away will be available in March from Sunrise Rotary club members and from Interfaith Caregivers board members. Cost is $100 per ticket, which entitles the bearer to a dinner for 2 (including drinks), the opportunity to win cash and prizes, and also participate in a silent auction and dessert auction the evening of the event. Individuals and organizations interested in supporting the event by purchasing tickets and/or donating items for the silent auction should contact Olson at 262-370-0060.
About Interfaith Caregivers:
Interfaith Caregivers connects older adults in Washington County with caring volunteers who want to lend a helping hand. Services include transportation (grocery store or medical appointments), home visits, light housekeeping, minor yard maintenance, minor home repair, occasional meal preparation, and snow shoveling. All services are free of charge. For more information regarding Interfaith Caregivers contact Executive Director Debi Genthe at 262-365-0902, or by email at wcinterfaith@yahoo.com.
About West Bend Sunrise Rotary Club:
Originally chartered in 1990, West Bend Sunrise Rotary Club meets weekly for fellowship, breakfast, and an informative and interesting presentation from a guest speaker every Tuesday at 7:15 a.m. at the Top of the Ridge Restaurant in West Bend. The Club’s major fundraising activities each year include the Kettle Moraine Jazz Festival which is held on the Friday and Saturday following Labor Day at Riverside Park in West Bend; the $15,000 Give-Away to benefit one or more local not-for-profit organizations; and joint fundraising with other Washington County Rotary Clubs through Enchantment in the Park, an animated holiday light show and Santa’s Village which raises food and funds for the Washington County food pantries. For more information see the Sunrise Rotary Club website at http://www.westbendsunriserotary.org.
About Rotary International:
Rotary is an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. In more than 160 countries worldwide, approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 30,000 Rotary clubs.
Rotary club membership represents a cross-section of the community’s business and professional men and women. The world’s Rotary clubs meet weekly and are nonpolitical, nonreligious, and open to all cultures, races, and creeds.
The main objective of Rotary is service — in the community, in the workplace, and throughout the world. Rotarians develop community service projects that address many of today’s most critical issues, such as children at risk, poverty and hunger, the environment, illiteracy, and violence. They also support programs for youth, educational opportunities and international exchanges for students, teachers, and other professionals, and vocational and career development. The Rotary motto is Service Above Self.
Although Rotary clubs develop autonomous service programs, all Rotarians worldwide are united in a campaign for the global eradication of polio. In the 1980s, Rotarians raised US$240 million to immunize the children of the world; by 2005, Rotary’s centenary year and the target date for the certification of a polio-free world, the PolioPlus program will have contributed US$500 million to this cause. In addition, Rotary has provided an army of volunteers to promote and assist at national immunization days in polio-endemic countries around the world.
Find out more about Rotary by visiting the Rotary International website at http://www.rotary.org/en/Pages/ridefault.aspx.
