Community Service

Rea of Hope House
The Charleston Vandalia Rotary Club adopted Rea of Hope House as one of our signature projects because it was needed in the community and it had leaders willing to go the extra mile to see it to completion.

Rea of Hope Fellowship Home is dedicated to providing a home for women 18 years of age and older, who are recovering from drug and/or alcohol addiction. Their primary mission is to provide a safe and positive home environment where mutual support and caring will be provided as a link in the recovery process.

Rea of Hope will celebrate two years of operation in May, 2007. Since opening dozens of women have been served. All residents are actively working or seeking employment, or educational opportunities. Currently the house is full, serving 10 West Virginia residents.

Feel free to stop by the home on Charleston's East End for a tour. For more information or to make a contribution, contact Rea of Hope Fellowship Home: 1429 Lee St., E., Charleston, WV 25301; or (304) 344-5363.

eMentoring
The Vandalia Rotary Club has entered into a partnership with The Education Alliance to serve as mentors for high school students through the WV eMentoring program. WV eMentoring is an online career-based mentoring program for secondary students. Students benefit by interacting with an adult whose experiences are in the students' career field of interest and having the opportunity to create a personalized college and career profile. Mentors benefit because they can have a positive impact in a student's life without taking time away from work. West Virginia benefits because students who participate in eMentoring have a better understanding of their career options and the academic preparation needed to successfully pursue their career goals.

FINCA Village Bank
We are more than a club; we are also a bank. The Vandalia Rotary Club supports the Foundation for International Community Assistance, or FINCA, a nonprofit international organization that provides financial services to the world's poorest entrepreneurs.

FINCA offers loans, at market rates of interests, to low-income persons to provide them the capital they need to begin small businesses. The loans are borrowed, invested and repaid, after which the money can be used to stimulate another fledgling business.

Village bank members form groups to manage and collect repayments on the loans, and decide on how to reinvest the income. The borrowers guarantee one another's loans, giving them a stake in the success of all involved. More about the organization can be found at www.villagebanking.org.

Paul Harris Fellowships
One of the conditions of joining the Vandalia Rotary Club is that each member will make an annual contribution of at least $100 per year towards becoming a Paul Harris Fellow. Paul Harris Fellowships, named after the founder of Rotary, are awarded to each person who has contributed at least $1,000 to the Rotary Foundation. The money is used for Rotary projects, including Rotary's primary goal of eliminating polio worldwide.

Rotary Scholarship
The Vandalia Rotary Club has funded a scholarship program that will help a student in the southern West Virginia area to attend college. The scholarship fund will provide at least $1,000.00 each year to a student who meets the criteria that will be established by the Club's Board of Directors. The scholarship will be administered by the Kanawha Valley Foundation, but scholarship recipients will be chosen by the Club Board. An application form will be available on the club website in the near future.

 
We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution
We the People promotes civic competence and responsibility among the nation’s elementary and secondary students.  What makes the program so successful is the design of its instructional program and culminating activity. The instructional program enhances students understanding of the institutions of American constitutional democracy. At the same time, students discover the contemporary relevance of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. The culminating activity is a simulated congressional hearing in which students "testify" before a panel of judges. Students demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of constitutional principles and have opportunities to evaluate, take, and defend positions on relevant historical and contemporary issues. 

Immunization Project
Young adults sometimes fall through the cracks of our health care system. That is particularly true of those living at or near the poverty line, who don't qualify for public assistance after the age of 18, and whose jobs may not provide health care benefits. The Vandalia Club has obtained a Blane grant from Rotary International, and has tripled that with its own funds, to pay for immunizations by the University of Charleston and the Kanawha County Health Department. Persons who could not otherwise afford vaccinations will have them paid for by the Vandalia club.