Community Projects
To learn more about our Community Service projects or programs, some with an international theme, just click on the bar. To minimize just click bar again.
The Christmas for Kids program focuses on children who need assistance and good cheer. This program allows children to understand that Christmas is about giving, and while the kids do receive presents themselves, they also are given the thrill and satisfaction of giving presents to their parents, siblings and caregivers. It really focuses on the reason for the season and is a very uplifting and anticipated event for the school system, the kids and our club members.
In a city of 25,000 people, taking 40 kids from less fortunate families and making a difference in their and their families lives helps makes a difference. It should come as no surprise that the annual Christmas for Kids event is one of our Club’s most favorite and gratifying projects .
At our Club meeting on November 21st, 2013 Sheri Smith, School Counselor at G.W. Caver Elementary School, one of the four Salem Elementary Schools participating in the program, shared these thoughts with the Club.
Annually as part of Clean Valley Council’s “Clean Valley Day” our Club members met in the morning at the Salem Rotary Park on Rte. 419 and Apperson Drive. Many hands make quick work of trash and debris along the Roanoke River bank, greenway and Salem Park area.
All third graders in the City of Salem schools are presented with a student dictionary of their very own to aid in their studies. Each book has a presentation label from the Rotary Club of Salem. Third grade representatives join our club for lunch each year in honor of this program.
The Rotary Club of Salem supports the Interact Club at Salem High School. Interact is a club for young people who want to join together to tackle the issues in their community that they care most about. The club carries out two service projects a year: one that helps their school or community and one that promotes international understanding. They meet monthly as a ‘B’ Club under the oversight of Kara Halsey, an English teacher. Projects include suicide prevention, District Conference, Autism Awareness and Rotary Youth Leadership Academy.
The Rotary Club of Salem is pleased to announce the September 2014 arrival of Alvaro Catel as a Rotary Exchange Scholar. Alvaro comes from Sorocaba, Brazil, a city of 700,000 inhabitants near Sao Paulo. He attends Salem High School and is pursuing a college preparatory course of study.
Remarkably, Alvaro is the third person in his family to participate in Rotary Youth Exchange. His mother was an Exchange Student in the Chicago area. His sister, also an exchange student, shared the same host family as his mother two decades prior.
Alvaro enjoys basketball, art and playing the guitar. He will live in Salem the full academic year.
Alvaro is being hosted by Jim and Caroline Wallace, and Nancy Sullivan, all of Salem.
The Rotary Club of Salem is accepting applications for local students to become outbound Youth Exchange Scholars for both short term summer exchanges and full academic year exchanges (application deadline for the 2015-16 school year is Dec. 1, 2014).
We organize food drives in support of the Salem Food Pantry and a Winter Coat Drive to benefit the Salem Clothes Closet. We have also aided local communities by collecting and supplying bottled water as needed for emergency relief.
The Club works together with Lewis Gale Food Services and the City of Salem Elementary schools to provide families in need with sixteen holiday meals. The committee members deliver eight Thanksgiving and eight Christmas dinners prepared by Lewis Gale Food Services to families suggested by the the four Elementary Schools in Salem.
Quote from a speech delivered at our Club meeting on November 21st, 2013 by Sheri Smith, School Counselor at G.W. Carver Elementary School, one of four elementary school participating in the program…
“I volunteered to be the elementary representative today to express our appreciation for the support the Rotary Club members provide our students and their families during the holidays.
Eight of our families, two from each school, will have a Thanksgiving meal delivered to them next Wednesday on behalf of this club and several gracious volunteers. Thank you to Mike Mayo for working with us to provide this blessing.”
The winner of the Jostens Trophy is chosen by a national selection committee that consists of college coaches, former athletes, college administrators and selected members of the media. The members of the national selection committee cast their votes based on three criteria: basketball ability, academic ability and community service.
In conjunction with the awarding of the Jostens Trophy, is the presentation of the Wooldridge Scholarship. The scholarship will be given in the name of the Jostens Trophy recipient to the college or university which he/she attends.
The award is named after Dan Wooldridge, a Salem Rotarian and retired commissioner of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, as a way of honoring him for his life-long commitment to service and excellence. A veteran of the officiating ranks, Wooldridge is a Paul Harris Fellow and has in the past served as the Rotary Club of Salem President.
Scholarships for college and high school students, through the Dan Wooldridge Scholarship and the James Elliot Scholarship the Club assistis young people to pursue higher education.
In addition, Our Club’s donations help to fund a Health Focus of Southwest Virginia Scholarship for the education of future health care workers, allowing them to become much needed parts of the health care system in our region.
Given each year by the Rotary Club of Salem, the Roy W. Hendrickson Outstanding Citizen of the Year Award was bestowed to Rotarian Denise “Dee” Phlegar King of Salem at the Salem Civic Center during the Club’s weekly meeting on Thursday, September 3, 2020. Her husband Judge M. Fredrick King was present at the occasion. He has inspired her in all her leadership endeavors forever reassuring her she could do anything she strived for in her life.
“The award is given to an individual who has throughout their professional and community life worked voraciously and humbly to make the world a better place,” said Club President Jeffrey Howard. He thanked Dee for serving the Club as a former board of director, former club secretary, volunteer chair of Olde Salem Days Committee, Vice-Chair of the Program Committee and Food Chair, Christmas for Kids Committee.
Various speakers outlined Dee’s many contributions epitomizing Rotary’s motto or “Service Above Self”. From teaching Sunday School at First United Methodist Church, as a member of Lewis-Gale Hospital’s Board of Directors, decades of service on the Salem Roanoke Chamber of Commerce and having held positions in several local government, professional and charitable organizations.
Humbled and honored by this award Dee continues to find ways she can serve Rotary and her community and our world.
Brothers Paul and Mark W. Hendrickson Present Denise (Dee) Phlegar King
the Roy W. Hendrickson Outstanding Citizen of the Year Award 2020 at the Rotary Club of Salem, Virginia.
The Service Above Self Award was developed to recognize someone who exemplifies the ideals in the Four-Way Test and the Object of Rotary in his/her professional life. The person cannot be a Rotarian and cannot be in an ownership, managerial or supervisory role. The concept is to recognize the “average worker” who is often not considered for awards such as outstanding citizen.
Regina Devinney is a Workforce Investment Act Case Manager with Goodwill Industries of the Valleys. Regina works with adult clients who are unemployed, or under-employed, to place them in jobs that will lead to the individual’s self-sufficiency. A majority of Regina’s clients also have barriers to employment, such as ex-offenders. Serving this population is not an easy task; Regina does not let this deter her from delivering the best results possible for everyone she serves. She comes to work every day with a smile on her face and hope in her heart. She knows her work is not just a job, but that her work is truly making a difference in people’s lives.
Katrina Johnson has focused on helping, teaching and improving the life of others. She taught elementary school for 11 years after receiving her Bachelor’s Degree from Southern Adventist University. She returned to school in 1994 receiving her Associate’s Degree in Administration of Justice. Working as a Case Manager at the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program, she assisted individuals with alcohol issues prior to becoming Salem’s Victim Witness Coordinator in 1998. Katrina’s greatest impact is assisting crime victims; especially those victimized by domestic violence or sexual assault, in particular child sexual assault victims. Katrina is an angel to crime victims in Salem.
