Rotary Programs

Below is a description of some Sumter Rotary Club Programs.

CART Fund
The CART Fund was started by our club in October 1995. CART stands for Coins for Alzheimer's Research Trust and is dedicated to providing much needed research dollars with the aim of helping to find a cure and/or a prevention for Alzheimer's disease. Our members voluntarily started donating their loose change at our meetings as a pilot project. It was so successful that we introduced it to our District 7770 in 1996 and it was then adopted as a District project.

Our District made its first grant of $100,000.00 to the Emory University Alzheimer's Research Center in April 1999. Since then all 6 districts in N.C., all the other S.C. districts, and all 3 Georgia districts have adopted the CART project.

Starting in May 2001, over 8 consecutive years, Cart has made 11 grants of $200,000.00 - $250,000.00 each to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, John Hopkins School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center, UCLA, University of Texas Medical Branch, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic -- Jacksonville (2 grants), the University of Alabama-Birmingham, and the University of Kentucky. Total grants made to date total $2,750,000 million dollars.

These grants are highly coveted as we have had as many as 71 applicants in one year from research centers in 44 states. The scientific community now considers CART as one of the leading providers of seed money for cutting edge, high impact research funds.

The Fund has been honored three times by organizations and individuals outside of Rotary; one was a Symposium given in CART's honor by some of the world's leading Alzheimer's scientists in Philadelphia in July 2004 and the other was when the Secretary of State of S.C. named CART as the No. 1 "Angel" because we give 100% of all donated funds to research. In 2006 the Governor of S. C. issued a proclamation naming June 22, 2006, 2007, and 2008 as CART Fund Day.

The Sumter Club leads all other clubs in all districts in total dollars donated to CART. As of July 31, 2009, contributions to CART by all clubs, which are tax deductable, exceeded $3,000,000.00. We are extremely proud that this worthy project started in our club.

Scholarship Fund
The Scholarship Fund provides tuition grants for students from Sumter County pursing higher education. Originally a loan fund for College tuition, during the sixties it became a grant which required no payback on the part of the recipients. Several scholarship Grants are provided each year. One Grant of $4000, disbursed over four years, is awarded through an application process usually conducted in April of each year. Three other grants currently of $750 each are awarded to USC Sumter, Morris College, and Central Carolina Technical College, who chose the recipients.

Interact Club
Interact is Rotary International's service club for young people ages 14 to 18. Interact clubs are sponsored by individual Rotary clubs which provide support and guidance, but they are self-governing and self-supporting. The Sumter Rotary Club sponsors an Interact Club at Lakewood High School that is composed of approximately 20 students in grades 9-12. The Interact Advisor is Sumter Rotary Club member and Lakewood teacher Ike Jenkins. The goals of Interact are:

  • Developing leadership skills and personal integrity
  • Demonstrating helpfulness and respect for others
  • Understanding the value of individual responsibility and hard work
  • Advancing international understanding and goodwill

Each week our club invites Interact members to their meetings where they have an opportunity to meet local leaders, see interesting programs, learn first-hand about business and community activities, and of course enjoy a delightful meal. One of our Interact Club's major annual projects is assistance with the Dictionary Project in which a dictionary is provided to every 3rd grade student in Sumter County. Interactors receive the dictionaries from the vendor, place a Rotary label in each dictionary, and separate dictionaries into the appropriate number for each of the 21 schools served. Last year 1597 dictionaries were processed.

Interactors also participate in the Sumter Rotary Club's Adopt-a-Highway cleanup program and assist with the annual American Red Cross blood drive at their school. Last year 70 units of blood were collected during the blood drive sponsored by the school's Junior ROTC unit and the Interact Club.

For more information contact Interact Advisor Ike Jenkins at 803-506-2718

Dictionary project
The Sumter Rotary Club became involved with The Dictionary Project in the fall of 1999. Working with Mrs. Mary French, a Charleston lady who founded the project and established it as a non-profit organization, we distributed dictionaries to all third graders in the public schools of Sumter School Districts 2 and 17 that year. Our club ordered the dictionaries through Mrs. French and coordinated the distribution to the students. The other two local clubs shared the cost on a prorated basis. After several years we added the private and parochial schools, and now all third graders in all schools in Sumter County receive the dictionaries. The other two clubs have become active in helping to distribute the books, but our club has continued to take the lead in coordinating the project. The Lakewood High Interact Club became involved some years ago. They have taken on the responsibility of pasting the Rotary stickers into the front of each dictionary, and they also count out the dictionaries and pack the boxes for each school based on third grade enrollment figures supplied to us by the schools. The current school year (2009-2010) marks the 11th year we have been involved in The Dictionary Project.

Adopt-A-Highway Program
Sumter Rotary is responsible for picking up the litter along the roadside of Wesmark Blvd from Broad Street west to Wilson Hall road. "Roadside Clean-ups" are scheduled several times a year early on Saturday mornings. It is great fellowship and a nice service to our community.

Salvation Army Bell Ringing
Just before Christmas, teams of Sumter Rotarians volunteer to man a collection station and "ring the bell" for donations to the Salvation Army

Rotary Foundation
The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty.

The Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world.

Some of the projects of the Rotary Foundation include:

Polio Plus: After 20 years of hard work, Rotary and its partners are on the brink of eradicating this tenacious disease, but a strong push is needed now to root it out once and for all. It is a window of opportunity of historic proportions. As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, children everywhere remain at risk. The stakes are that high.

Matching Grants: Help with disaster recovery, helping provide clean drinking water in 3rd world countries, and, locally, providing the Sumter County Red Cross with needed equipment, funding computer training for sight challenged people through the Recovering Sight Program, and needed improvements to our down town area.

Rotary's programs for students and youth can change the lives of those who participate. Through these programs, young people can earn scholarships, travel on cultural exchanges, or help a community through a service project.

Ambassadorial Scholarships: Since 1947, nearly 38,000 men and women from about 100 nations have studied abroad under its auspices. Today it is the world's largest privately funded international scholarships program. Nearly 800 scholarships were awarded for study in 2005-06. Through grants totaling approximately US$500 million, recipients from about 70 countries studied in more than 70 nations.

Rotary Youth Exchange: Rotary Youth Exchange students spend up to a year living with a few host families and attending school in a different country. Participants will learn a new way of living, a great deal about themselves, and maybe even a new language. They will also be an ambassador, teaching people you meet about your country, culture, and ideas. It is away to help bring the world closer -- and make some good friends in the process.

For more information on Rotary programs, please check out these websites:

Interact http://www.rotary.org/programs/interact/index.html
Interact is a Rotary-sponsored service club for young people ages 14-18. The program gives young people an opportunity to participate in fun, meaningful service projects while developing leadership skills and meeting new friends. Our local Club is located at Lakewood High School For further information, please contact Ike Jenkins, marike@gte.net

PolioPlus http://www.rotary.org/foundation/polioplus/index.html
In 1985, Rotary launched the PolioPlus program to protect children worldwide from the cruel and fatal consequences of polio. In 1988, the World Health Assembly challenged the world to eradicate polio. Since that time, Rotary's efforts and those of partner agencies, including the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and governments around the world, have achieved a 99 percent reduction in the number of polio cases worldwide. Rotarians stand at the brink of a great victory and look forward to celebrating the global eradication of polio in 2005, the organization's centennial year.

Rotary Foundation http://www.rotary.org/foundation/index.html
The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to support the efforts of Rotary International in the fulfillment of the Object of Rotary, Rotary's mission, and the achievement of world understanding and peace through local, national, and international humanitarian, educational, and cultural programs.

Youth Exchange http://www.rotary.org/programs/youth_ex/index.html
Since 1927, students and host families all over the world have had their horizons broadened and their lives enriched by the generosity of Rotary's Youth Exchange program. Administered by Rotary clubs, districts and multidistrict groups, the program today involves more than 82 countries and over 8,000 students each year.

  

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