Media
Release
Rotary Club Of
Donation of $1,500,000.00
The
Rotary Club Of Windsor (1918) has a rich history of giving, both
internationally and locally. On Monday, April 30, 2007 the Rotary Club Of
Windsor (1918) made one of the most significant announcements in the club’s
eighty-nine year history pertaining to two important local organizations.
President Maureen Lucas, President Elect Shari Cunningham and Past President
Peter Hrastovec announced $500,000 to Maryvale’s Rotary Home of Adolescent and
Youth as well as $1,000,000 to the John McGivney Children’s Centre. Both
of these contributions were towards the construction of their new facilities.
Over the
years, this club has founded and fostered many wonderful local projects which
include:
·
fundraising
in the founding of both the Grace and
·
founding
and funding of the Essex Kent Golf Tournament
·
founding
of the Crippled Children’s Fund (now Easter Seals, a national organization)
·
opening
of the Children’s Rehabilitation Centre (now the John McGivney Children’s
Centre)
·
funding
the construction of the Rotary Youth Home at Maryvale;
and our most recent project,
·
The
Children’s
We have
also staged major community events like Children’s Fest and Art In The Park, a
renowned Windsor event, the proceeds of which are shared with our community
partner, the City of Windsor for the continuing refurbishment and restoration
of Willistead Manor.
This is
over and above the parks, pools and other community facilities that have been
initiated or supported and the millions of dollars that have been donated over
the years to various local projects and organizations in our region.
For More information on today’s announcements,
please contact the Rotary office at (519) 253-6382 or go to our website at www.rotary1918.com.
History Of The Rotary Club Of
In 1991 the Rotary Club of Windsor was considering
projects for their 75th anniversary in 1993. The President of the
day, Rotarian Norm Wheeler began to consider various projects on behalf of the
Rotary Board. It became apparent that suicidal children and children in
psychiatric crisis were not being well served in our Windsor/Essex and
Chatham/Kent communities.
This club brought together
With the leadership from The Rotary Club Of Windsor
(1918) and the co-operation of the various agencies - creative juices and money
began to flow and a Rotary Home for Children and Youth was created in
1994. This home serves children in
Windsor/Essex and Chatham/Kent.
At that time our club contributed the costs of
refurbishing an existing 1964 cottage at the Maryvale site to meet this
important program need.
The Rotary Home for Children and Youth is recognized as a
ground breaking success as it is the first place in
Kids coming out of this program give these comments: -I
don’t want to cut myself anymore-, -I don’t feel like I want to die-, -I feel
like sunshine and rainbows-, -I feel safe and I’m starting to like my
body-. Imagine how wonderful this is!
The program has now out grown its space and Maryvale is
looking to build a new facility for a suicidal children and children in
psychiatric crisis. The costs to build of a new facility are approximately
$3.5M.
Today, the Rotary Club Of Windsor (1918) is pleased to
announce thru its Windsor Rotary Foundation Fund, the it is making a
contribution of $500,000.00 towards this new facility - also to be called the
Rotary Home for Children and Youth.
History Of The Rotary Club Of
In 1965, the Rotary Club Of
Windsor (1918) established a Steering Committee whose mandate was to review the
need to develop a new, and fully integrated facility with a focus on children
with special needs. A dignified and gentlemanly Rotarian who had vision, spunk
and the kind of motivation that moves mountains chaired this committee. That
visionary and Rotary idealist was none other than our very own John McGivney.
After
years of deliberation, constant and direct lobbying of governments and through
many, many hours or planning, fundraising and organizing, John McGivney and his
fellow Rotarians at the Rotary Club of Windsor (1918), the Ontario Society for
Crippled Children and the Provincial Ministry of Health, together officially
opened the Children’s Rehabilitation Centre of Essex County.
This Centre currently hosts both
preschool and school-aged programs on-site in conjunction with their core
rehabilitation services including physiotherapy, occupational therapy,
communication therapy, recreational therapy, family services, seating and
augmentative communication. In addition to their daily programs, various
medical clinics and camps are also held at the Centre along with toy and
equipment loan and resource libraries for the many families served. The Centre offers a preschool program for
children ages 2 - 5 as well as operating a fully regulated Section 68
school. The Centre is also a training
site for several post-secondary college and university professional programs,
and high school cooperative education experiences. The staff participates in
research and development, notably through membership in the Ontario Association
of Children’s Rehabilitation Services and is affiliated with CanChild, a
research program through
And most significantly, in
2006,just last year,the Children’s Rehabilitation Centre went through a
rebranding exercise and in doing so was proud to announce the renaming of the
facility as the John McGivney Children’s Centre.
And today, through the Windsor Rotary
Foundation Fund and through the membership of this club, through our club’s
ancestry and the members who have preceded us to those who are here today, we
are pleased and honoured to announce our commitment to assisting the capital
campaign of the John McGivney Centre with a contribution of $1,000,000.00. This
campaign will see a bold new expansion to the existing facility to service the
needs of the many families and children in this community who rely on the JMC
to give them continuing support, inspiration and motivation with their
educational and therapeutic needs.