Villa Park Rotary - Four Avenues of Service

The Villa Park Rotarians strive for the advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.

International Service Projects are designed to meet the humanitarian needs of people in many lands, with particular emphasis on the most underprivileged children and families in developing countries.

Our achievements for the year 2009-2010:

1. Packed 300 backpacks for the needy children in Tecate, Mexico. Each backpack contained

school supplies, hygiene supplies and toys.

2. Packed 500 backpacks for needy children in Liberia. Contents were school supplie, hygiene

supplies and toys.

3. Donated 20 sewing machines to Operation Graceland in Kenya.

The machines will be used to teach sewing skills to older children residing in an

orphanage in a village outside Nairobi.

4. Donated funds for the purchase of educational toys for an orphanage in Sighasora, Romania.

The toys were selected and delivered by students from the Humanitarian House at the

Douglas College Campus of Rutgers University. Members of the Rotary Club in Sighasora,

Romania greeted the students.

5. Donated funds to help the Baja Crippled Children Project. This is an organization of

podiatrists based in Torrance, California who travel to Mexico to perform corrective foot

surgery on crippled children at no charge to the family.

6. Purchased and shipped DVD players to assist in establishing a DVD library for our

milatary personnel stationed in Afghanistan.

7. Donated funds for Haiti relief efforts through the Rotary International Foundation.