Today we recognized the Rapid City Alternative Academy 1st semester students of distinction. Each winner received a $50 Walmart card. Rushmore Rotarians will also throw a doughnut party for them at the school at 9:45 this morning. Congratulations to these outstanding students!
Rotary Action Fund (RAF) was created in 2020 to help children and families in crisis access resources to meet their immediate and urgent needs.
The fund was established after talking to Connie Olson, Chief Development Director at Youth & Family Services (YFS). Connie shared that a number of the families served by YFS who are facing ruinous situations can often be kept from homelessness, severe hunger, or other hardships simply be receiving a small, one-time financial gift. Although YFS offers a variety of services and programs to support families—especially families from low-income homes—organizational funding is most often restricted to support programming and not available to assist with families’ personal crises.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, YFS began seeing a significant increase of families facing these difficult situations. Not only were families facing circumstances that were more troublesome but the number of families experiencing them also increased. In an effort to help these families, Dr. Ashok Kumar from Rapid City Rotary and Dr. Willis Sutliff from Rushmore Rotary, decided to “pass the hat” to see if we could collect enough money to help some of these families. We were delighted when more than $14,000 was raised for this effort.
These funds made a tremendous impact during the COVID-19 pandemic. Funds from this initial collection lasted nearly a year and a half and garnered great results. In an effort to continue this support, the two Rotary Clubs applied for a joint Rotary 5610 District Grant. Each of the clubs raised an additional $2,000 dollars for a total of $4,000 which was then matched through the grant, giving us $8,000 to utilize over the next Rotary year. Again, we saw great results from these funds. Although those funds have been utilized, it is our goal to carry on this programming to continue supporting families in need. Currently, the RAF is continuing through the generous support of Rotarians.
If you would like to donate to the Rotary Action Fund to help children and families in crises, please contact Rotarians Willis Sutliff, Dave Dolan, Linda Peterson, Ashok Kumar, or Connie Olson at Youth & Family Services, 605-342-4195. Donations can go directly to YFS attention RAFund.
What a hardy group of volunteers we have! Rushmore Rotarians helping with the Feeding South Dakota outdoor distribution on Tuesday evening. Great job people.
Rushmore Rotarians Linda, Francie, John, Rene and Mary starting the year off by serving lunch at Cornerstone Mission January 2nd. We serve lunch every first Tuesday of the month. If you would like to participate please sign up on this website.
Today was a working meeting. We were joined by Taylor McCarty, LOSS team program director with Journey On. We stuffed kid and teen care bags for the LOSS Team. They are a non-profit supporting individuals and families who experience trauma due to suicide. They go to the scene with law enforcement to help families deal with the suicide, give comfort kits to the kids and teens. They also assist with the details involved and follow the family for a year. They depend on grants from Rapid City and fundraising donations. For more information go to their facebook page, Facebook/journey on-LOSS Team.
Today was Rotary Day. We heard from Pat Sutliff on the Rotary Friendship Exchange last fall to India. A group from our district traveled to India and were graciously hosted by district 3120. They toured temples, attended lots of Rotary meetings, visited schools and medical clinics that were helped by our global grants, and ate a lot of wonderful food. If you are interested in going on a friendship exchange or want more information go to rotary.org. #district5610 #RotaryFriendshipExchange
Our speaker today was Rapid City Mayor Jason Salamun. He has been in office 6 months now and addressed his vision and goals for Rapid City. Our city is an amazing destination, but he wants it to remain a great place to raise a family. There are many opportunities with new businesses relocating here. We are also experiencing unprecedented growth so new housing is trying to catch up, and water usage is being addressed. Updates and expansions to our system are in the works. The city is also working with many community groups to address homelessness and keep people safe. He believes as we grow we need to be better before bigger.
Our speaker today was Amy Sazue, Executive Director of the Remembering the Children Memorial in Rapid City, SD. This memorial will honor the discovered location of unmarked graves of children from the Indian Boarding School which operated in west Rapid City from 1898-1933. The land has been put into trust to protect it. The memorial, which will be placed this fall, will be there to acknowledge, educate and help heal this piece of history. For more information on this important project visit: www.rememberingthechildren.org.
Our meeting today was at the Black Hills Stock Show & Rodeo. It runs through Saturday, February 3rd at the Monument. The stock show has a large economic impact on this area. The competitions help set the market for auction. Our Speaker was Justin Tupper, President of the U.S. Cattleman’s Association and owner of St. Onge Livestock. He answered a lot of questions pertaining to the beef industry, and challenges facing it today. See the full schedule of events for the stock show at www.blackhillsstockshow.com.
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