Dear friends,

The Community Services and Environmental Stewardship committees invites you to a celebration of Earth Day that will take place on Saturday, April 24th from 9:00 AM till Noon around the Gateway as well as Riverwalk area across from City Hall.

We are in need of volunteers for general clean-up, brush/weed cutting along the Riverwalk, preparation of sites for planting Pollinator Garden spaces, and transplanting native day lilies in the park north of the Gateway.

Bring your friends and family ... many hands make light work. Volunteers from the Interact Club and Concordia will be joining us.

If you can make it, please bring along shovels, rakes, loggers, etc. 

Thanks,

Bruce, Connie & Jennifer

pay it forward [pey it fawr-werd]: Pay it forward is an expression for when the recipient of an act of kindness does something kind for someone else rather than simply accepting or repaying the original good deed. - Pop Culture Dictionary

Following Albert Alcarraz's presentation, individuals in our club sent $1000 and a box of gifts to Albert and his family in Lima, Peru.

The money was wired to Albert at no cost thanks to our friends at Port Washington State Bank. Albert used part of the funds to buy food baskets for needy neighbors. The remainder was set aside for family expenses.

Club members also filled a box with family gifts including games, bilingual books, clothes, and puzzles. Scott Bern covered the costly international postage. After an anxious four-week wait, the package arrived today! (See top photo)

From an earlier article:

On Friday (2/19) our Rotary speaker was Albert Alcarraz who was kind enough to share a bit of his life and beautiful family with us. He also shared the not-so-beautiful situation that currently exists in Peru. On top of a corrupt and ineffective government, citizens of Peru are experiencing a hard lock-down with extreme limits on mobility, no opportunity for work or income, and no hope of receiving a covid vaccine.

After hearing Alberto's story our club wanted to do something to help. In addition to collecting needed items and shipping them to Albert we also raised $1,000.

Here are some photos from Albert about the 10 baskets he prepared for neighbors using part of the funds we sent. The rest will be used to cover family expenses.

Through the years, Rotary has carried out thousands of projects to protect the environment. In just the last five years, we’ve allocated $18 million to projects that help our planet. Members have even more opportunities to focus on issues that are important to them, now that the environment is one of the causes we focus on.

Here are ways Rotary members are already supporting the environment.