The Story of Mel's Charities

This documentary video, by award-winning director Glenn Aveni, traces the history of Mel's Charities from its humble beginnings to its current position as one of the largest independent charitable organization in Ozaukee County.

Rotary Club pairs students with celebrity and CEO mentors

Snow is falling in St. Joseph, Michigan. On this December day, the overcast sky, swirling flakes, and twinkling bulbs of holiday decorations have created a festive, almost Capraesque atmosphere along the brick-paved streets of this community, which sits on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. Across the street from the Boulevard Inn, stairs lead down to Silver Beach, a 1,600-foot-long expanse of sand that is the town’s main attraction in warmer months.  

Inside the inn’s restaurant, Jackie Huie sits at a corner table explaining the student mentoring program that the Rotary Club of St. Joseph & Benton Harbor started a decade ago – a program that has helped more than 400 local high school students learn more about their dream careers by connecting them with professionals in those fields.

The exposure to community service that the program provides has led students to start Interact clubs at six local schools, including one at St. Joseph High School that has about 150 members. As the Rotarians work their connections to find mentors for students, they have strengthened the bonds between the 140-member Rotary club and its community. And in small ways, the program is even building bridges between St. Joseph and its “twin city” across the St. Joseph River – Benton Harbor, a once-affluent manufacturing town fallen on hard times.

Editors Note: This is one in a series of articles highlighting Rotary projects around the world.

In a Rotary-supported initiative, thousands of tents that help provide protection from the elements have been distributed to people in the UK who are homeless. The lightweight one-person tents, which cost about $40 each, are intended as a short-term solution for vulnerable people in cold and wet weather. “The very first time we showed the Sleep Pod to anyone outside our small circle was when we showed it to Rotarians,” says Justin Devereux, who co-founded the Sleep Pod charity with two friends.

The Rotary Club of Erdington and other District 1060 clubs provide financial support, and hundreds of Rotarians and other volunteers joined a push during the pandemic to assemble pods at home to increase the available stock. “While people still die on our streets and in our fields from hypothermia and exposure, Sleep Pod will do all we can to support people as they sleep underneath the stars,” says Devereux, “for whatever reason they find themselves there.”