Longmont Rotary Programs and Awards

 

Youth Exchange Program

The youth exchange program seeks to foster international understanding and goodwill throughout the world. The youth exchange committee manages the youth exchange program for the club in cooperation with Rotary International and District 5450. Committee responsibilities encompass both inbound and outbound exchange students. Through the youth exchange committee the club recruits, interviews and selects the outbound student candidates.

The committee in turn accepts responsibility for inbound students from other countries and provides support for the academic year. This support includes selecting suitable host families, assigning a club counselor, coordinating school registration, and arranging transportation support for the student. The committee also arranges short term summer exchanges for interested students in the community.

 

Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA)

RYLA is an awards program for local high school age youth sponsored by Rotary International. Its objectives are to encourage and assist youth leaders and potential leaders in methods of responsible and effective leadership by providing them with training and experience; to encourage continued and stronger leadership of youth by youth; and to publicly recognize the high qualities of many young people who are rendering service to their schools and communities as leaders. Two winners each year are sent to a week long summer Rotary District leadership training camp. The goals of our own District 5450 is to help young women and men gain an understanding of how a better way of life may be achieved; to increase their knowledge of their American heritage; to inform them concerning the essentials and benefits of the free enterprise system; and to give emphasis to sportmanship and competition, physical fitness, spirituality and character as vital ingredients for succesful leadership.

 

Youth Achievement Awards

Two graduating high school seniors (one boy and one girl) from each of the three Longmont High schools are presented $500 scholarship awards each year in recognition of their leadership, academic achievement and/or their efforts to deal with adversity in their lives. The Youth Achievement Awards Committee works with the school district in making these selections. The recipients are recognized at a regular club luncheon near the end of the school year.

 

Interact Club

Rotary Interact Clubs are established in high schools to teach youth about the Rotary concept of service above self and to encourage the developement of responsible young leaders. Longmont Rotary Club is currently sponsoring the establishment of an Interact Club at Longmont High School, one of the three local high schools. There are 10 Rotary members working on the Interact Committee. Amazingly, the club started with 40 students. The goal is to provide support and suggestions to the students to determine the direction, number and nature of service projects. The club meets at the high school on first and third Fridays during the lunch hour. They have initially adopted programs as follows: teaching reading to elementary students, providing companionship to homebound elderly, establishing contact with Russian students and assisting in building a Habitat for Humanity home locally.

 

Group Study Exchange (GSE)

This is a Rotary International Program that is carried out by local Rotary Districts and Rotary Clubs. The purpose is to exchnage groups of experienced business and professional people with similar groups from other countries to encourage better understanding and goodwill. The Longmont Rotary GSE Committee works with the three Longmont and three Boulder clubs to find host families for the inbound GSE Teams while they are in our area. We also help with the coordination of activities and transportation for the team. In addition, we solicit candidates for the District's outbound teams, review their applications, interview them and select qualified candidates to recommend to the District for consideration.Although team members are not required to be Rotarians, Longmont Rotary Club has among its members four previous GSE team leaders and one former team member, some of whom became Rotary members after their GSE team participation.

 

Longmont Charity Fund

In 1984 the Longmont Rotary Club originated a tax exempt charitable 501c corporation known as The Longmont Rotary Charity Fund, Inc. to receive donations from members, members spouses and anyone else wishing to do so. A major portion of the yearly donations received is distributed yearly to worthy local charitable causes with the remainder being added to the endowment fund which is invested for obtaining growth for the future. As this growth occurs, it is hoped that the earnings from the endowed funds will be a major source of additional distributions to local charities. Many local charities, too numerous to describe here, have been recipients of distributions through the years. The Longmont Charity Fund is managed by a separate board of directors that is appointed by the Club's board of directors.

 

Compassion Awards

The symbol of the Longmont Rotary Club is the Tower of Compassion which stands in Kanemoto Park. The Tower has five levels, each representing an element of compassion. The Compassion Awards Committee is responsible for soliciting nominations, selecting and presenting two awards yearly. The Jim Kanemoto Citizen Award ($1000 to a charity of choice) is presented to a local citizen and the Frank McDonough Award is presented to a Longmont Rotarian. In addition, the Committee sponsors an essay contest on "What is Compassion" for area students, grades K through 12. Five winners are selected by the Committee by age group and the students are presented with a $50 award and the ability to name a charity to receive an additional $50 in the name of that student.

 

Parks Committee

Two local parks were endowed by deceased Longmont Rotary Club members---Jim Hamm and Roger Jones. The parks are now known as Jim Hamm Park and Roger's Grove Park. Each week a Rotarian volunteers to clean-up detail at each of the parks. Parks Committee chairman Ed Lewis checks both parks each Friday to be sure they are presentable for the weekend. Heritage Middle School students, under the direction of teacher Candy Fox are also involved in the cleanup. The Committee is also involved in other special projects when called upon by the City Parks Department. Rogers Grove is still under construction as a result of substantial additional fund grants from the Outdoor Colorado organization.

 

Winter Warmth Program

Over the past several years the Longmont Rotary Club has collected over 15,000 coats and other articles of winter clothing for citizens in need throughout the community.During the months of October and November, the public donates coats at receptacles located throughout the city where members of the club collect them on a daily basis. The coats are then taken to a local dry cleaner to be sorted andd cleaned. The owner who is a Longmont Rotarian has donated all this work. The distribution point for the winter clothing is a local charitable facility known as the O.U.R. Center Clothing Bank. This project is one of our club's most successful and rewarding activities.

 

Salvation Army Christmas Program

For many years Longmont Rotary Club has played a major part in providing volunteers to man the kettles for the local Salvation Army Christmas solicitation for funds for the needy.

 

Urban Rural Day

About 40 years ago, the Longmont Rotary Club, realizing that its members were mostly urban business people who were surrounded by a vast agricultural community which contributed greatly to the economic success of the area, instituted a yearly luncheon recognition of members of the farm community. This event became a yearly tradition which continues in a highly successful yearly event today, even though the economy of the area is now considerably different.

 

Jim Kanemoto International Peace and Compassion Award

When announcing the creation of the new award, Rotary member Phyllis Dwyer remarked, "Jimmie Kanemoto is known to most of us as Mr. Compassion. He quietly goes about doing good things for others without making a big fuss about it. He doesn't do it for the recognition - he does it to help humanity." Kanemoto had been nominated many times for the Longmont Rotary Compassion Award but would not accept the honor. However, each year he has facilitated the conferring of the award to others. Ms. Dwyer noted, "He is certainly a man who exemplifies the Rotary motto, "Service Above Self". His contributions to Rotary will make life easier for the peoples of the world for many years to come." The Jim Kanemoto International Peace and Compassion Award will only be awarded to an outstanding Rotarian who has demonstrated compassion on a global scale, for example, by working on international humanitarian projects that address today's challenging issues, such as hunger, poverty, and illiteracy. The award will be accompanied by a Paul Harris Fellow, which is a thousand dollar donation to Rotary International. In addition, the award was symbolized by an original work of art, a glass portrayal of the Tower of Compassion in Kanemoto Park, the Rotary Wheel, and the World by Kathy Bradford, a local artist.