By Randy Bretz, Rotary Club of Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

A woman from Africa and her six children will soon have a new home in Lincoln, Nebraska, thanks to our Rotary club and Habitat for Humanity of Lincoln.

Construction will begin soon on the home for Martha and her children, giving them a place to live that isn’t cramped and even with a yard for the family to enjoy. Martha’s salary can only afford a two-bedroom apartment, but with the help of nearly $40,000 from our club, Habitat for Humanity will be able to construct a three-bedroom home on a lot in Lincoln that she can afford to buy.

The co-chairs of our annual fundraiser, Rise.Shine.Give, were overwhelmed at the support and donations that came in. Kate Holman and Penny Johnston note that sponsorships, silent auctions, and a lottery drawing resulted in more than $86,000 raised at our event on 12 February. After a year off because of COVID-19, nearly 150 people gathered at Nebraska Innovation Campus for the event.

We have a custom of donating half of the money raised to a charity of the club president’s choice. Club president Christina Usher said she selected Habitat because “it is an organization that is focused on building community and helping provide affordable housing.”

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

The Rotary Club of Collierville, Tennessee, treated hundreds of children with special needs and their families to a complimentary evening of hot-air balloon rides, food, and activities. The event, held on the eve of the Bluff City Balloon Jamboree, had 80 helpers across seven clubs in District 6800 (Tennessee and Mississippi). 

The clubs generated $30,000 in donations to cover the expense. “This was a once-in-a-lifetime event for a special-needs child,” says Dave Rhylander, a member of the Collierville club. “Just how many children in general have been on a tethered balloon ride? Roughly 300 kids got an opportunity to do that.” 

For September, the club is planning a riff on a TV show about high school football as another event for children with special needs. “We’re having our own Friday Night Lights for them this year,” Rhylander says.

by Louis Greenstein

Most of us associate the word "bias" with bad things like racism, sexism, and homophobia. 

To social scientists, however, those things go beyond bias; they're bigotry. Social scientists define bias as a preference, and without it, well, imagine how long it'd take you to place an order in a restaurant. 

Psychologist Matt Grawitch, director of strategic research at Saint Louis University's School for Professional Studies, says our brains evolved to make decisions quickly, based on small amounts of information. And in prehistoric times, experts believe that the more someone seemed like us, the less dangerous we assumed them to be, whether or not this was true. 

But many of our prehistoric tendencies aren't necessarily good for us today. Studies have shown that the most diverse companies are more likely to outperform their competitors. And you may have a bias toward burgers and against vegetables, but that doesn't mean you should only eat burgers or hate vegetables. 

Part of being a modern, evolved human or organization might mean avoiding some of the things we're biased toward and seeking out alternatives.

While we are often bad at spotting our own biases, we can learn to distinguish bias from bigotry and keep it from negatively affecting our decisions. 

Here are some tips for keeping bias from becoming a detriment.