For the new year, The Rotary Club of Buffalo is offering a present to not-for-profit organizations located in Buffalo or who are planning a project in the city. The club’s foundation is accepting grant requests for capital projects that align with at least one of the three Rotary “Avenues of Service” – community, youth or vocational service. The Buffalo Rotary Foundation will consider projects up to $200,000 that are located within the CIty of Buffalo. The deadline for submission is Jan. 30, 2016.
“Since 1911, the members of the Rotary Club of Buffalo have come together to create a better community. It’s amazing what we can accomplish when hearts and minds work together,” says current club president Laurie Albertsson. “Our members believe in Rotary’s mission of ‘service above self’ and freely volunteer their time to help make a difference in our community.”
Past major project grants have included Rotary Rink, an outdoor skating rink in downtown Buffalo which offers free ice skating in an urban setting, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Boathouse, which is a resource for the West Side Rowing Club, the nation’s largest rowing club. The boathouse has allowed the Rowing Club to expand its programs for Buffalo’s inner city youth.
Rotary Rink, completed in 1991 after more than a decade of planning and design, is named after the Rotary Club of Buffalo, which made a $500,000 commitment to the project. The outdoor skating rink in downtown Buffalo offers free ice skating in an urban setting. In 2010 the club gave Buffalo Place $3,000 for 60 new pairs of ice skates for free use by Rotary Rink patrons.
Thanks to the $500,000 raised by the Buffalo Rotary, the Frank Lloyd Wright Boathouse sits on Rotary Park and is accessed by Rotary Row. It provides a resource for the West Side Rowing Club, the nation’s largest rowing club. The boathouse has allowed the Rowing Club to expand its programs for more of Buffalo’s inner city youth.
Buffalo Rotary is helping to revitalize our community. The 100-foot tall Rotary Flagpole, flying a 30-by-60 foot flag at the Buffalo & Erie County Naval & Military Park, was dedicated on Flag Day in June 2011 thanks to a $9,000 grant from Buffalo Rotary. In October 2015, the restored seven-ton port anchor from the U.S.S. Little Rock was installed as the “gateway” to the Naval Park on the Buffalo waterfront with help from a $9,508 Rotary grant.
The Rotary Club of Buffalo is made up of committed neighbors, community and business leaders dedicated to making Western New York a better place to live since 1911. Since 1989 the club has awarded grants of more than $1.8 million to a range of local community organizations. The Rotary Club of Buffalo: a social enterprise that delivers social change!
For more information, please visit www.buffalonyrotary.org or email Buffalo Rotary President Laurie Albertsson at la****@fe*************.com.
