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Joliet Rotary will invite grade and/or high school students to present to the Club at a lunchtime meeting, a service project for their community or school. Scholarships will be $100- $300 and if we exceed the budget or find a great project, we will invite our Rotarians to contribute more money. This will help students gain more confidence to present to an audience and to be able to have their project partially or totally funded.
Addendum to Project Description (added after the project was signed)
The Joliet Rotary Club was unable to find a school to do our service project about service projects. Instead, we are requesting District allow us to use our $1,000 grant to support the following event.
Approved by Rotary Foundation on 6/2/23.
According to the US Census Bureau, 34% of Joliet is Hispanic. The Spanish Community Center (a 501(c3) was built in 1969 when there was substantial movement of the Latino population from Chicago to the suburbs. It started in someone's home and became a bilingual broker between the public system and Joliet's newest residents. The Spanish Community Center currently provides a food pantry, housing counseling, bilingual childcare for ages 2-5, immigration and legal services and well as youth baseball and softball.
Children's Day (Día del Niño) is observed in a few Latin American countries to celebrate and uplift youth. When Spanish Community Center introduced the event six years ago, the purpose was to continue the tradition in our communities, create a unique, free children-focused experience, and provide information and resources to families.
The Joliet Rotary Club would like to provide a $1000 sponsorship would be spent on room rental and food cost in order to support the continuation of this important event in Joliet. Three of the Joliet Rotary Club are on the Board of Directors of the Spanish Community Center which planned and raised money for this event. The Board Chair, (Rotary member Brian McDaniel) was also present for the entire day of the event to set up the room which we would like to pay the rental on and provided English/Spanish translation to the children and their families. The event was held on May 31st, 2023 and over 200 children and their families attended.
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