Projects

The Amarillo West Rotary Club has several ongoing projects that not only benefit the local Amarillo, Texas community but we are also committed to projects that allow Amarillo West the opportunity to perform “Service Above Self” in all four Rotary avenues of service. (i.e. community service, vocational service, club service, and international service).

Each year we encourage our local community to join us during several fundraising events, which include:

Our supported projects to help build goodwill and better friendships, as well as benefit our local community are:

    • YMCA “Rotary Park”: $5,000 contribution made annually to complete a total commitment of $50,000. Amarillo West is in the 9th year of this commitment. Amarillo West hosted a golf tournament in August of 2008 to help raise funds for this annual commitment.

    • Robert E. Lee Elementary School Book Project: after the delivery of each week’s program, the speaker is requested to sign a book on behalf of the Amarillo West Rotary Club. These signed books are then presented to the library at Robert E. Lee Elementary School which would be considered one of Amarillo’s more economically disadvantaged schools.

    • Personalized Books for Kindergarten Students: Along with the other three Amarillo Rotary Clubs, Amarillo West presents personalized school books to the Kindergarten students at selected Elementary Schools. This effort is funded in part by the Rotary District 5730 District Simplified Grant

    • High Plains Food Bank: Amarillo West provides several volunteers to help sort food products for further distribution.

    • Salvation Army: Amarillo West provides “Bell Ringer” volunteers to help the Salvation Army with their collection of donations during the Christmas Season.

    • Habitat for Humanity Project: Amarillo West donates annually to assist with projects. Eventually the club would like to assist with the construction of a habitat house.

    • Amarillo Independent School District Tree Planting Project: Amarillo West donates annually to the school district for the purchase and nurturing of saplings. Once a year we go out and plant trees on an AISD campus.

    • Tascosa High Scholarships: We give 4 scholarships to seniors each year.

    • *America Supports You Texas: Donated money on behalf of our club’s military service veterans to support the Texas Panhandle Honor Flight.

    • *Rainbow Room: Club assists Child Protective Services by donating goods for abused and neglected children that are waiting for foster care.

    • Thanksgiving Baskets: Club takes up donations to provide baskets for needy families locally.

    • *Christmas Baskets: Club takes up donations to provide gifts for needy families.

    • *In conjunction with our International Project we are looking to have our partner club reciprocate with a project TBD locally.

    • RYLA: We send four kids each year.

    • Diabetic Camp: We sponsor at least two kids each year.

    • Support local Boy and Girl Scouts: Provide donations annually.

    • Soliciting City of Amarillo to recognize the week of February 23rd as “Rotary Week.” Will begin
      a tradition of weeklong service projects with the other clubs in Amarillo/Canyon.

Our recent Club Service activities include:

    • Special Club Events: Amarillo West schedules two to three events outside the club to help build greater friendship and fellowship among its members and their respective families. For example, Amarillo West hosted a Christmas Party at the Amarillo Club in December of 2007. This event was one of the best attended events ever hosted by Amarillo West for its members that occurred outside of a regular scheduled meeting.

    • Birthday Cards: Amarillo West has a committee that sends birthday cards to all members.

    • Weekly Bulletin Committee

    • Website Design and Maintenance

    • Set up a permanent Fundraising Committee to look at community and Club trends to determine the best methods to finance our service projects.

    • Have set up a Membership Committee to foster growth, member participation, and member retention.

    • *Started Board Retreat to plan and set goals for upcoming year.

Our recent efforts to involve local students (our community's future), in community service are:

    • Mentoring Program: Along with the other Amarillo Rotary Clubs, Amarillo West participates in the Amarillo Independent School District’s “Mentoring Program” whereby Rotarians volunteer their time to help high school students learn more about potential professions.

    • Medical “Career Day”: In partnership with the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, Amarillo West participates in a “medical career day” to help inform interested high school students learn more about career opportunities in medical field. This event is very well attended.

    • *Mentoring program in conjunction with the Golden Spread Council of the Boy Scouts of America: Club provides speakers for mentoring workshops at Bushland High School.



Our recent efforts to provide humanitarian aid internationally while building goodwill and better friendships for all are:

    • Paul Harris Awards to benefit Rotary Foundation. Four awarded in ’08-‘09

    • Cruise Ticket Sales to benefit Rotary Foundation

    • Group Study Exchange: Amarillo West regularly helps with this project by taking the GSE team to the Big Texan Steak Ranch to help provide local fun and entertainment. We also allow the GSE team to be the focus of one of our meetings during their visit. We are sponsoring Katherine “Katt” Krause on her GSE trip to Israel for ’08-‘09.

    • *Youth Exchange: We have sponsored Sam Attebury on his exchange to Brazil and are hosting Rafaella Bianchi, from Brazil.

    • *International Bed Netting Project: Club is looking to partner with a club in Accra, Ghana to provide bed netting to families in Ghana. The club is looking to utilize district and international grants to fund this project.

    • *Reaching out to former Sudanese “Lost Boy” who has relocated to Amarillo

     


Rotary International has taken on polio eradication as its global cause. The Amarillo West Rotary is a contributor in that fight

      • The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International supports humanitarian, cultural and educational projects worldwide. Members can make direct donations to the RI Rotary Foundation through pledges, Paul Harris Fellow and other contributions.

      • The fight against Polio is a Foundation Project.

      • The Club sets a goal of $100/member annually to support the Rotary Foundation.

*Projects new for ‘08-‘09

       

 

*Projects new for ‘08-‘09