Community Corner

Rotary Club of Wheaton Returns From Dominican Republic

The Rotary Club of Wheaton recently visited orphanages in the Dominican Republic, where they presented a major donation check.

Four members from the Rotary Club of Wheaton, Jeff Pringle, Cathy Hetrick, Kurt Parent and Sheri Billing, and four Wheaton College students, from the newly formed Wheaton Rotaract Club, recently returned home from a weeklong service trip to the Dominican Republic.  The group visited three separate Kids Alive International orphanages located in Caraballo, Constanza and Jarabacoa. They also delivered many needed supplies as well as a check for $13,000 to continue construction of a home at the Constanza orphanage. 

While in the Dominican Republic, the group worked at the Kids Alive International Care Center in Caraballo constructing a cinder block wall that borders the perimeter of the center’s property. They brought along a shell craft for each of the 250 children the center sees each day. 

The group also visited the Kids Alive Care center and orphanage in Constanza. While at this site, the Rotary Club of Wheaton presented a check to Kids Alive International for $13,000, part of a $20,000 fundraising initiative, to finish the construction of a home for orphans. The home currently has walls and has not been worked on since 2005, as other projects have been a priority. Once completed, the building will house 10 orphans and their “house” parents. 

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The group also traveled to Jarabacoa where they met with the Rotary Club of Jarabacoa. The two clubs have submitted a matching grant to the Rotary Foundation to furnish the orphan home in Constanza once the building is complete.

Rotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. It is a secular organization open to all persons regardless of race, color, creed, gender, or political preference. There are 33,976 clubs and over 1.22 million members worldwide and clubs meet on a weekly basis.

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Rotaract is a professional service, leadership and community service organization for young men and women between the ages 18–30. Rotaract focuses on the development of young adults as leaders in their communities and workplaces. Clubs around the world also take part in international service projects, in a global effort to bring peace and international understanding to the world.

The mission of Kids Alive International is to develop responsible Christian adults from children who were once in at-risk situations. This is done by providing quality Christian homes and/or relationship-based day programs that equip the children spiritually, educationally, physically, emotionally, and vocationally so that they might become responsible Christian adults. 


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