RB Sunrise Rotary Helps to Change Lives

 

On Tuesday, May 9,  RB Sunrise Rotary  Club symbolically presented a large check to each of 3 organizations who had already received real checks. These organization directly change the lives of the children their programs benefit.  RB Sunrise Rotary Club is pleased to support these and other organizations because as Rotarians - Changing Lives is What We Do!
 
Toby Wells Blue Apple Ranch
 
l-r: Sue Herndon, President Craig Brown,  and Adrienne Wells Holmes
 
Toby Wells Blue Apple Ranch’s mission is to inspire responsibility and compassion by connecting people and animals. Through innovative programs that encourage young people to be mindful and kind while also providing at-risk horses a second lease on life, Toby Wells Blue Apple Ranch strives to encourage humanity while strengthening the bond between people and animals.
 
In the photo above, RB Sunrise Rotary member Sue Herndon, who is also a board member of the Toby Wells Foundation joins President Craig Brown and Toby Wells Foundation Executive Director Adrienne Wells Holmes in receiving the club's $2600 donation.  The donation will help to fund the programs at Blue Apple Ranch, a horse rescue facility
 
The ranch provides for field trips and a seasonal day camp  for city dwelling children.  The children learn about ranch life and in the camp, they learn how to care for the horses and also get to go on rides.  The experience teaches caring and responsibility to children who gain a love for animals.  

 
Fresh Start
 
l-r: President Craig Brown, RB Sunrise Grant Coordinator Heather Ray, and Fresh Start representative Christina Curtain.
 
 Fresh Start is a San Diego regional, nonprofit charity for children. Helping with deformities to transform their lives through long-term reconstructive surgery and ongoing care, as an organization that helps children, when we accept a patient, we make a commitment to maintaining a long-term medical relationship.  For example, our average cleft lip and palate patient requires seven years of dental care and approximately 49 treatments to reach the best possible medical outcome. Medical treatments are provided at the Fresh Start Clinic at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego by an all-volunteer team of surgeons and medical professionals. Visit the Fresh Start website to learn more about this unique organization. 
 
The donation of $2500 by RB Sunrise Rotary was matched by the Castor Family Trust.  The funds will help pay for supplies for one of the seven surgical weekends Fresh Start does each year. In the past, RB Sunrise Rotary coordinated the administration needed to successfully launch and complete a Rotary Foundation grant that provided funds that Fresh Start used to purchase a surgical laser.
 
American Assoc. of University Women's Tech Trek Program
 
l-r: Pres. Craig Brown, RB AAUW member Pat Armstrong, and Dr. Jim Dunny, RB Sunrise Executive Secretary, the club's contact with RB AAUW.
 
Girls find their passion for high-tech careers at AAUW’s Tech Trek camps. Through hands-on problem solving and encounters with women role models in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), Tech Trek helps girls see their futures while having nonstop fun. Since 1998, AAUW has helped change girls’ lives through Tech Trek, an experiential summer camp backed by research and designed to make STEM exciting and accessible to girls in middle school — the age when research shows girls’ participation in these fields drops. For many girls, the weeklong camp sparks their curiosity and places them on a path toward success.  The first Tech Trek was at Stanford University in 1998. There are currently 10 programs in California at 8 college campuses.  Tech Trek has expanded nationally to college campuses 1n 12 other states. 
 
Pat Armstrong, Tech Trek Coordinator for the Ranch Bernardo AAUW branch was on hand to acknowledge the RB Sunrise Rotary Club's donation of $1800 to the branch.  This  donation will fund sending 2 middle school girls to the San Diego Tech Trek camp in early July on the campus of UCSD.   The girls will live in the dorms and eat their meals in one of the campuses dining facilities.  At the camp, the girls interact with women in STEM fields and get to visit such companies as ViaSat and Qualcomm as well as other hands on experiences.   The Rancho Bernardo branch of AAUW chooses girls from several local middle schools to attend this camp.  Tech Trek has a history of success in introducing girls to STEM careers and giving them the confidence to pursue a career that they would not known existed had they not attended Tech Trek.  For additional information, click the link above.