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Why Join the Rotary Club of Longview
Why join the Rotary Club of Longview
If you want to be part of an organization dedicated to making a difference both in Longview and around the world, you should join us in the Rotary Club of Longview. Here are some examples of the projects we've undertaken:
- The Longview ISD and Spring Hill ISD backpack food programs we began and sustain now feed more than 500 students each weekend, making a critical, measurable difference in their educational success.
- We've developed links to Guatemala working with Rotary Clubs in our District 5830, The Rotary Foundation, and Rotary Clubs in Guatemala. Guatemala is the poorest nation in our Hemisphere. The people of Mayan descent there are impoverished and in great need. Working with Longview-based Refuge International (refugeinternational.com), we have distributed millions of doses of Albendazole to protect children from waterborne and soil-based parasites, allowing them to grow physically and mentally. We are working to sustain that effort through Rotary, the Ministries of Health and Education in Guatemala and Refuge International. We have begun building a modern hospital in northern Guatemala, outfitting it with equipment that we have collected and purchased that will be shipped in 2016.
- Our club is one of the leaders in our Rotary district in contributions to eradicating polio globally. In the mid-'80s, 350,000 cases of polio were reported every year. Through the work of Rotary, which has recruited the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the help of the U.S. and other governments, by spring 2016 there are only two polio endemic countries and only a handful of cases reported. We're truly this close to ending polio, and you can still be a part of this historic effort.
- We support the East Texas Literacy Council in its work, as well as the Longview Public Library and Boy Scouting in East Texas. We pick up litter twice a year on Bill Owens Parkway to help Keep Longview Beautiful.
- Our Club members have both led and significantly staffed the annual Longview Thanksgiving Food Drive each year for more than the past decade. About 1,000 families celebrate Thanksgiving each year because of our work.
- We donate 350 or more dictionaries every year to all Longview ISD third graders as well as several hundred ESL dictionaries to help Hispanic children in the district.
- We ring bells at Christmas for Salvation Army and contribute to the Toys for Tots program.
- We send five or six high school seniors each year to Rotary Youth Leadership training.
- We fund several college scholarships each year for deserving Longview High School seniors.
- We set out and pick up about 2,000 flags across Longview each national holiday. This gives an obvious patriotic boost to our city and it brings about $50,000 to our Club annually to use in helping programs like these, locally, and now globally!
- We sponsor a High School INTERACT club at Longview High School and a ROTARACT club at LeTourneau University. These help young people begin to understand that importance of service to others, in keeping with our Rotary motto: Service Above Self.
- We’ve donated to the LeTourneau University LEGS and Wheelchair initiatives, with programs given at our meetings that keep us up to date on progress each year.
- There are numerous other ways we serve, making your time spent as a member both Meaningful and Important!