Youth Service

Youth Services

  • Presented 3 brand new books to every 3rd grader in the Oakland and Emeryville public schools. The “Oakland Reads” project , lead by the 20-plus member Youth and Education Committee, coordinated 100 Rotarians to distribute 11,925 books to 4,035 3rd graders. They also gave an additional 1,700 books to younger children – the 109 k-2 classrooms in eleven of Oakland’s most needy schools.
  • Adopted Oakland Parents Literacy Project and solicited volunteers for their parent reading night.
  • Sent members back into the schools to expand member support and awareness of local schools and literacy efforts in the Oakland and Emeryville school districts.
  • Posted Rotary representatives to serve on the newly formed Oakland Literacy coalition - an association of organizations and individuals involved in numerous school literacy projects throughout the city.
  • Awarded $25,000 in scholarships to 5 Oakland public high school graduates to attend the four-year college of their choice. Each student was also assigned a Rotary counselor to work with them through their college experience.
  • Continued another year of our HOPE (Help Oakland Pupils Excel) program, where 7th graders were selected, assigned mentors and signed contracts setting expectations for attendance, grades, and citizenship. In return, each successful student receives $10,000 for post- high school education or training of their choice.
  • Conducted the 27th year “Enterprise Institute” for 80 juniors from Oakland high schools. The high school juniors work with a group of their peers, a high school senior, who served as a peer counselor, and a Rotarian to develop a start up business plan. The students spent three days in the beautiful Santa Cruz mountains, learning business skills, team work and social responsibility.
  • Hosted a luncheon for high school counselors who assist the members of the Saroni-Lena Scholarship committee in selecting deserving candidates.

Community Service

  • Supported an Eagle Scout in his project to build a trail and bench at Dunsmuir house to open up new access to the hillside view behind the house.
  • Fed the Hungry with two 5-minute appeals during Rotary meetings, resulting in:

$6,044 to Meals on Wheels (BACS)

$3,022 to Operations Dignity

$3,022 to Project Open Hand

$3,022 to St. Vincent de Paul Dinning Rm

Note that every dollar donated was matched by Rotarian

Sean Marx and his company “Give Something Back”

  • Started things growing by funding a garden for student planters at Futures Elementary School.
  • Matched a grant to The Bread Project to purchase a dough sheeter so culinary job skills can be taught to non-violent ex-prison inmates.
  • Purchased nutritious foods for 90 children in pre-school and Kindergarten day care at Golden Gate Child Development Center in North Oakland.
  • Produced Rotarians at Work Day – provided seed grant money for basic supplies, recruited members of local Rotary Clubs, Interact (High school) Clubs to work, and partnered with Keep Oakland Beautiful to clean up Oakland as part of the Keep America Beautiful Great American Clean Up. Projects included:

Rotary Nature Center in Lakeside Park – weeding, painting, clean up and more

Morcom Rose Garden – pulling ivy and weeds, planting and building compost bins.

Lake Merritt Shoreline – Teamed with Lake Merritt Institute for clean-up and maintenance.

Children’s Fairyland – worked with Rotarian C.J. Hirschfield and staff.

Lakeview Elementary School – weeded and planted, and painted the bathrooms.

  • Stabilized and beautified a hillside at Horrace Mann School in a project that involved students, parents and friends of the school.
  • Preserved history with a grant to the Downtown Oakland Senior Center to publish their yearly anthology of senior’s writing.
  • Helped purchase a new flat-screen television and disc player for the presentation of education videos and live-screen topics for seniors at the Downtown Senior Center.
  • Helped fill the stomachs of home-bound senior citizens with a grant for new kitchen equipment and meatloaf pans to Bay Area Community Services Meals-On-Wheels kitchen.
  • Sponsored 3 Interact Clubs which in turn did an incredible number of projects:

Oakland Tech Interact

Cleaned up at Lake Merritt (multiple times)

Helped out at Alameda County Food Bank (multiple times)

Planted at Caldecott Field and on the median strip on Broadway Terrace

Rotary Rose Garden

Oakland Tech Fundraisers for various organizations including Hydraid, Nothing But Nets Foundation, and UNICEF,

Painting and refurbishing Santa Fe Elementary School

Sausal Creek cleanup

Storm drain notice installation

Several urban trash pickups

Selling over 100 t shirts to benefit the “Save Darfur foundation

Pie baking, and food stand at the crucible to benefit Uhuru

Helping out at Rotary Taste Of California event.

Volunteering at the 4th of July Jack London square fireworks celebration

Oakland High Interact

Went to two different Senior Centers and sang carols with them to bring the holiday spirit for Christmas!

Ran a clothes drive during the winter to donate to the Salvation Army.

Helped clean and replant Sausal encourage

Helped clean Martin Luther King Shoreline to help clear the shoreline of thrash and debris.

Participated in monthly Oakland High Campus Clean-Up where we clean up our school.

Help gather canned food in response to declining donations to the Alameda Food Bank.

Emeryville High Interact

Fall Leadership Conference (5 participants)

Served at the Alameda Food Bank

Helped assemble packets of books Oakland Rotary Club’s Oakland Reads Program

Valentine's Day fundraiser

Painted faces [school spirit/]

Distributing flyers for Anna Yates [Lower School] reopening event.

  • Built a house with Laney College, the City of Oakland, and Truitt & White Lumber. The project provided a hands-on learning opportunity to more than 250 building trades students enrolled in Laney’s carpentry program. The projected employed state of the art “Green” construction materials and techniques. Put it on the market for sale to a first-time home buyer.
  • Received 3 properties from the City of Oakland for future House Building projects, including two parcels that will support two houses each. The third property has a structure that will be remolded and enlarged. The building process will involve participation in Build it Green’s GreenPoint Program, and will target compliance with Ed Mazria’s Architecture 2030 challenge which aims to utilize no more the 50% of the energy of a conventional build.
  • Sponsored an Architectural Design Competition for students at Oakland Technical High School. Provided 5 Rotarian judged who gazed, discussed and provided professional discussion and insights to students, and selected 9 winners and 2 honorable mentions.
  • Sponsored the Grizzly Peak Flyfishers to put on a one-day fishing trip – complete with a personal adult fishing expert, a well stocked San Pablo Dam Reservoir, a BBQ, a tee-shirt, a plaque with a photo of each child with fish caught, and a memory forever.
  • Thanked each weekly speaker by purchasing a wheelchair in their honor, and donating it to a deserving and needful person in Asia, Africa or the Middle East.

International Service

  • Rotary International Foundation - Forwarded more than $38,000 from members to The Rotary International Foundation to bring help and health to people who need it, locally and around the world. This year cumulative donations from our Club members topped the $1.2 million mark.
  • China – Provided shoes for earthquake victims.
  • Ethiopia – Built a well.
  • Cambodia – Removed landmines.
  • Nepal – Provided milk and vitamins to 751 orphaned infants and toddlers.
  • Beleize – Attended Uniendo America, a project fair started in 1994 by Oakland Rotarian Karl Stucki to partner North and Central American Clubs together to combine their efforts and complete humanitarian projects.
  • Coaniquem Antofagasta/Santiago, Chile – Sponsored medical treatment and rehabilitation for one year for one child at the Burn Center, one of hundreds who need such help.
  • US/Chile – Sponsored exchange student Willy Ureta from Chile, who lived with local families, attended public school got a perspective of life and people in the United States.
  • Panama - Extended a water system.
  • Costa Rica – Supported a floating library.
  • Guatemala City – Purchased hearing aides
  • Guatemala – Supported other Rotary Clubs, District 5170, and The Rotary Foundation to purchase medical supplies to Faces of Hope, which does cleft lip and cleft palate surgery for infants and children.
  • Kakamega, Kenya – Built a rainwater collection system.
  • Belize – Organiseda Rotary International Matching grant to upgrade the toilets and sanitation system at San Ingnacio School.

Rotary Service & Fellowship

  • Conducted ORLA (Oakland Rotary Leadership Academy) to help groom and prepare leaders of our Club via two separate training sessions, including topics on Committee/Meeting Management, Advanced Communication Skills and other exciting topics.
  • Revised the By-Laws without bloodshed or angst, a long overdue project that brought our bylaws incompliance with Rotary International guidelines and current practices.
  • Inducted 34 dedicated, excited and outstanding new members.
  • Received a “Presidential Citation” fro Rotary International President D.K. Lee, in recognition of completing service projects or activities in each of five specified categories, as well as a project to help reduce child mortality.
  • Received regional or “Zone” Literacy Award in recognition Club’s work providing books to 3rd graders, publishing the written works of Seniors, mentoring of middle and high school students and providing a floating library for a community in Costa Rica. This award was a first for Oakland Rotary.
  • Received the “Health and Hunger Award” from Rotary International for participation in project the promote the former and reduce the later.
  • Received the “Best Cooperative Projects Award” , a coveted award granted for the Oakland Reads Program’s extraordinary and effective partnership with the Oakland Unified School District.
  • Applauded member Johanna Leonard as she received the District 5170 Alan McLeod Award for her services to the development of Interact, Rotary’s equivalent of Rotary for High School Students.
  • Whooped it up as Carla Betts received Rotary International’s Four Avenues of Service Award.
  • Applauded, AND whooped it up s Karl Stucki received he District 5170’sinaugural Karl Stucki Award for the Rotarian in the District that best embodies rotary ideals
  • Awarded the Dan H. Lasar ‘Good Job” Award to Jack McAboy,f or his outstanding and tireless efforts to create a memorable and significant celebrational year of Oakland’s first century of service.
  • Received the 2009 Making Democracy Work Award, presented by the League of Women Voters of Oakland at their April 09 Annual Luncheon.
  • Trained Committee Web Liaisons to keep the calendar accurate and up-to-the-minute, and pages fresh and exciting.
  • Enlarged the Oakland Rotary Endowment Fundraising Campaign and increased the Permanent Fund by more than $270,000 in cash and pledges, and raised the percentage of donors to more than 50% of Club members.
  • Conducted the second annual “Oakland Rotary Endowment Month” in March, launching four weeks of education, fundraising and donor recognition.
  • Donated an additional $40 to underwrite the educational component of the “Remember Them: Champions of Humanity” project. A school curriculum to support the monument is being developed by the Martin Luther King Center at Stanford University.
  • Conducted four exciting and very fun “Bridge” dinners where new members learned more about the broad range of club activities and service opportunities, and topped them off with two New Member Cocktail Parties and ten Orientation lunches.
  • Raised over $27 K at the 26th annual Taste of California Wine and Food Festival held at the Oakland Museum, while showcasing local vintners and food and beverage establishments to more than 1,300 guests!
  • Supported Rotary District 5170 by attending Avenues of Service BBQ, District Conference, District Assembly and provided the MC for the Saturday Banquet.
  • Held 4 golf tournaments, a tailgate party, a Talent Show, and a theatrical production of “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” with dinner at the Woodminster Amphitheater.
  • Had some “High Adventures” including a Day at the Races at Golden Gate Fields, a Fleet Week Bike Ride, and ski trip with gourmet meals, and kayaking!
  • Put the spotlight on Committee Accomplishments at the Sixth Annual Committee Fair at the Jack London Aquatic Center–enjoyed a stunning sunset, fine wines, and compelling committee displays.
  • Ate gourmet meals and skied down mountains on a great ski trip.
  • Enjoyed 48 exciting meetings and heard programs on ethics and e-books, financial messes and elder abuse, practical dreaming and live radio, farm to table food systems, and universal pre-school. We expanded our comfort zones, and looked into the status of women in Islam, heath care in the US, life in Rwanda, and the US Supreme Court. And much much more.
  • Participated in an Inter-city meeting with the San Francisco Club celebrating the first inter-city meeting in the history of Rotary in Oakland in January, 1909.
  • Displayed banners and billboards all over Oakland celebrating Oakland Rotary’s centennial.
  • Hosted RI President DK Lee and his wife and RI Director Paul Netzel and his wife on a tour of Oakland and their participation in our black tie gala at the Claremont Resort Hotel.
  • Sponsored the Oakland Rotary Centennial golf tournament at Sequoyah Country Club.
  • Received special centennial recognition for our publication of 100 years of Rotary history, “Turn Back The Wheel”
  • Succeeded in increased membership through”My Word”, a video history of why people join Oakland Rotary and “Turn Back the Wheel” to honor and share our past.
  • Led the support in the creation of ‘Champions for Humanity’, a monument depicting 25 role models who demonstrated remarkable courage and conviction in their quest to better the living conditions of their fellow human beings.

Oakland Rotary 2008-2009

“Making Dreams Real”