Welcome to Rotary Club of Redlands, a community service organization. Rotary focuses on the message of “Service Above Self.” And this year our theme is “Rotary: Making a Difference. This means that we are an active club within the community of Redlands, California. Our activities are fostering literacy in our town by reading to elementary school students during breakfast time and providing dictionaries to all 3rd grade students in the Redlands Unified School District. We acknowledge academic excellence through scholarships for college and leadership training camps. We perform various community projects, and provide programs for those with special needs. Annually, we host a program we call “Touch a Truck” where children get to see and touch the large equipment they watch from afar.
But Rotary doesn’t only act locally, we are international. With more than 35,000 Clubs worldwide, we are winning the fight to eradicate Polio. Over the next three years the worldwide Rotary clubs, in conjunction with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will contribute $450,000,000 to destroy Polio. Besides our focus on Polio, we help establish medical clinics, and provide sustainable programs for clean water. This year, we are including the problem of “human trafficking” in our club focus.
There are many local and international opportunities with Rotary. So pay it forward, and come in and check us out. Rotary is making a difference and you can be part of it.
Sometimes, the availability of financial support makes the difference between a student attending college or not. The Rotary Club of Redlands gifts tens of thousands of dollars of college scholarships each year to Seniors in the Redlands Unified School District. These funds are derived entirely from the Rotary Club of Redlands Foundation.
Every third grade student in the Redlands Unified School District receives a dictionary of their own, compliments of the Rotary Club of Redlands.
Our Youth Services Committee provides monetary support for numerous local youth service groups in need of a hand.
Our Compact Club creates opportunities for local high school students to network with business leaders and learn what it takes to succeed in adult vocations.
Through our “Breakfast and a Book” program, Redlands Rotarians meet before classes with students from every grade selected by their teachers at Franklin and Lugonia Elementary Schools to offer breakfast and read to them from books which the Club provides and the students may then take home and keep.
Each year, our Club throws a party for a group of developmentally challenged adults known as the “Purple Turtles.” The Club hosts, serves a meal, and busses tables at a dinner dance that includes music, entertainment, and a gift for each attendee.
Area high school students from all backgrounds participate in the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards weekend, where they meet and bond with other teens in the RYLA program that many students and Rotarians have described as “life-changing.”
Our Club gives the opportunity to Redlands student speakers to win cash awards through the “4-Way Test” Speech Contest, where competitors are asked to contemplate the significance of the core values of Rotary Clubs around the world.
For the Redlands students who express themselves through a musical muse, our music competition gives monetary rewards for instrumental and vocal performances to selected participants in our annual Music Competition.
