Community Service Committee 2014-2015 Planning

The ERC Community Service Committee has a goal to promote literacy and youth, accordingly, you will see that theme through most of our events and grants.

We just completed the School Supply Drive for CWA, - Thanks to Kathy Becker for coordinating this year, and all who donated. The Club once again plans to assist with Fairview South School day at the Zoo. As many of you know, the Brookfield Rotary Club no longer exists, however, they gave money to school to keep this event going for the next two years. We plan on volunteering at this event.

The committee will once again be running two food drives for the Waukesha Food Pantry this in in January and May. Any monetary donations will be matched, a great way to contribute considering the phenomenal buying power the food pantry has. Those of you that were at the meeting after Tony Consiglio dropped off the food last time, heard of the great need in the area, as the line to receive items extended around the block corner.

We have our first “save the date” for the year, the annual St. A’s Christmas Party will be December 11th. Thanks to Jan, Darcy and Bonnie for volunteering to head this event. This event is a great event, and I encourage all new members to put it on their calendar. We will once again be coordinating gifts for the students through donations from club members. The event is a highlight for many members, and includes food and entertainment.

We will once again be supporting the CWA Spelling Bee which will be in January/February, and we will use part of our fund allocation for this. 

Barry James will be leading us again with our Diane’s Dictionaries program and we will once again be distributing to a number of schools in the fall.

Continuing the promotion of literacy, we will hold our annual Magazine and Book Drive in the spring.  So when doing that cleaning, please put aside your books and magazines. Donations will once again be made to schools, the local jail, Literacy Services of Wisconsin and the library.

We have contacted St. A’s for a project we could support by selling Boston Store Value books.  We like the idea of having a tangible goal to help the kids.  The books will be sold in November, just in time for Christmas shopping.

We'll be having another “Hands-on” service project with a work day at The Women’s Center. Mark your calendars for Saturday, October 4th.

And a list of activities wouldn't be complete without mentioning our work in reviewing and issuing Grants. We will be reviewing grant opportunities this fall. As you can see from above, we like to support NFP’s where fellow Rotarians are hands on.   So, later we will be making an announcement of the grant request deadline.

If anyone has questions or would like to help with our efforts, please feel free to contact me.

Mike Schmeling
Community Service Committee Chair
Rotary Club of Elmbrook (Brookfield)