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The Rotary Club of Issaquah: Who We Are

 - - Chartered In 1977 by Rotary International, the Rotary Club of Issaquah continually redefines itself through new members, new vision and activities, and new forms of local and global service.  Fifty-five active and actively retired men and women ages 25 to 70+ make up our current membership.  Bringing together a wide range of professional and business backgrounds, the Club meets weekly from 12:15 to 1:30 pm in Issaquah. 

Our meetings are an informal gathering of friends who work together toward a common purpose – the betterment of our community and world.  Rotary’s motto “Service Above Self” amply describes what Rotary is all about. Each week a relevant, interesting program brings our membership together for fellowship.  Each month during the academic year our club hosts a Humphrey Fellow from the University of Washington. The Humphrey Fellow program brings mid-career professionals from developing countries to study at the Evans School of Public Affairs in their chosen field for a year.  Enlightening programs like these help us to understand and appreciate the dynamics that are going on in the world today.

Club President through June 2007 is Bob Brock bbobb@ci.issaquah.wa.us


COMMUNITY  SERVICE

Rotary Run.   Our best-known community activity is the Rotary Run, held each year since 1977 on the first Sunday of October during the Issaquah Salmon Days Festival.  The Run draws more than 1,200 runners and walkers and helps position our club to perform meaningful community service throughout the year.

Oktoberfest in June.  The Issaquah and Sammamish Rotary Clubs jointly sponsor this annual community auction.  As the event has grown, it has moved from the Pickering Barn to the Issaquah Community Center, featuring food and exhibits by local vendors and both silent and live auction items.  Income from the auction supports our community and international service projects.  In 2006 the event raised $17,400 for Life Enrichment Options (LEO), an organization that provides group housing and essential support services to individuals with developmental disabilities.  This year’s Oktoberfest in June is scheduled for June 10. LEO will again be the major beneficiary of the auction.

Challenge Day Race.  This high-spirited event, held annually in July, pairs individuals with disabilities with young, able-bodied drivers (usually 12 and under) for soap box derby races down 2nd Ave in Issaquah.  Challenge Day also provides adaptive cycling for those who might never otherwise ride a bike.  Success of this special day is measured in both miles and smiles!

Support for Rotary First Harvest (RFH). The 44 Rotary Clubs in the Puget Sound fully support this program, collecting food that is edible but not marketable and redistributing it to local food banks.  Each year, Issaquah Rotary donates generously to RFH, with contributions totaling more than $5,000 each of the last three years.  Along with representatives from other clubs, members also volunteer the second Saturday of the month at the warehouse in Seattle. Go to www.firstharvest.org for more information.

Support for our local food bank.  Here is high-spirited competition for a great local cause.  Adult teams sponsored by local businesses and civic groups compete in a real Spelling Bee held annually at the Village Theatre.  The event draws a great community audience, offers a three-foot traveling trophy and bragging rights for a year—while we Rotarians raise about $6,000 annually for the food and clothing banks operated by Issaquah Valley Community Services.  The 2006 Spelling Bee will be held on May 17.

Christmas families.  This year we provided the gifts and extras to make a great Christmas for two families identified through the food bank.  We also made a cash contribution to a third needy family.

Fourth of July Kids Parade.  Our club provides the organizational skills and manpower for the City of Issaquah Kids Parade on July 4th.

Financial support for local organizations.  Over the years, our Club has been a regular sponsor for the Village Theatre Youth Education Luncheon, and we contribute annually to the Outdoors for All Foundation and the YMCA Partners with Youth Campaign.  Members decide upon gifts to other needs and activities as they come before us, sometimes passing the hat for a worthy cause at our luncheon meetings. 

VOCATIONAL SERVICE

Students of the Month. Each month, September through June, Issaquah Rotary recognizes outstanding students selected by their teachers at Issaquah, Liberty and Tiger Mountain High Schools for achievement in a variety of academic, athletic, and leadership activities.  Students are featured at a Club meeting, accompanied by their parents and a teacher who helps tell their story.   Typically, Student of the Month celebrations are everyone’s favorite Club meetings—inspiring worthy young people to even higher goals and reinforcing our confidence in youth to shape a better and more understanding world.

Rotary Students of the Month are featured with pictures and stories in the Issaquah Press.

Scholarships.  Issaquah Rotary awards $10,000 in scholarships each year to local high school seniors who will pursue their academic and vocational goals in colleges, universities, community colleges and technical schools. 

Employee of the Year.  Held each May, the Chamber of Commerce Community Awards luncheon includes Issaquah Rotary’s selection of an outstanding employee in the Greater Issaquah area.  Whether a wage-earner performing simple duties with extraordinary dedication or a shaper of new directions and services within the organization, our honoree is selected because he or she personifies the Rotary value of Service Above Self.  The Issaquah Rotary Employee of the Year helps lift the entire community through an exemplary work ethic.

INTERNATIONAL SERVICE  

Clearing land mines in Cambodia. Over the last two years we have provided financial support for a district-wide effort to remove mines in rural Cambodia.  One village that has been helped is occupied by “untouchables” who have been rejected by their own people for being handicapped by land mines.  After the village was de-mined there were funds left to rebuild a school and buy farm animals for this subsistence economy.

Computers for Turkey.  In partnership with the Aspendos Rotary Club in Antalya, Turkey we sent 16 rebuilt computers to a middle school that serves five villages in the area.  In 2006 we sent 20 more computers to Turkey, 10 to the same middle school and 10 to a school for the hearing impaired.

Grants from Rotary International.  Our club was awarded a 3-H (Health, Hunger, and Humanity) Grant for $330,000 in 2000.  We partnered with our sister club, the Rotary Club of Atakoy, in Istanbul, Turkey, to fund some very sophisticated computerized diagnostic equipment for a Walking and Movement Center.  This equipment aids in determining what surgical procedures can help correct defective body movements and has helped 18,000 people injured in the 1999 earthquake.  This center has now become a research facility for muscular dystrophy.  We also received a matching grant to purchase x-ray equipment and a film processor for a public health clinic that was damaged in the earthquake; the equipment has been used to scan 11,000 people for TB.

Water project.  Providing clean drinking water for developing countries is a focus of Rotary International.  Our club is providing financial assistance for a water project in Ethiopia.  A well will provide fresh, clean water for people who currently walk miles to get polluted water for daily use.  Past experience has shown that when these wells are donated outright they fall into disrepair and eventually fail.  Rotary International requires a payback program where villagers have to pay, even if only a few pennies a month.

Other Projects.  Our club sent Braille equipment to Zimbabwe and partnered with another club in our district to send school supplies to an orphanage in the Seychelles Islands.

INTERNATIONAL YOUTH EXCHANGE        

With inbound and outbound high school exchange students, Issaquah Rotary reaches around the world and brings the world back into community homes and schools.  With Rotary Clubs on every continent and in most countries of the world, our exchange program provides unique, enriched support to young people—and helps them to become true ambassadors of  their culture. 

Issaquah’s outbound students have recently been placed with Rotary Club hosts in Italy, Thailand, Ecuador and Germany.   We have supported inbound students from Germany, Denmark, Japan and Brazil, helping them adjust to life with their host families and student life at Issaquah High. Our exchange student this year is from Turkey.

In our summer program, selected students live abroad with a host sister or brother for several weeks and then return home with that exchange partner for another several weeks.  Talk about an international summer!

Our members are proud of our youth exchange program and serve as enthusiastic mentors to our exchange students.  By interacting with them at Club meetings and events, we know we are helping develop young citizens of the world who will be a genuine force for peace and understanding.