Rotary Club of North Phoenix

Through its fifty-six year history, the Rotary Club of North Phoenix, Arizona has been intimately involved in local and international projects which have been designed to improve the day to day lives of communities and individuals who are less fortunate than we. Its members have exhibited this strong interest by providing not only funds but the personal involvement to make certain that we get the most “bang” for our dollars!

Our Club members have personally given more than $320,000 to the Rotary Foundation toward the funding of international projects that have, for the most part, involved community health improvement. In addition to these dollars given through the Rotary Foundation, Club members have self-financed travel to the likes of Brazil, Honduras, India and Mexico so that they could personally supervise these projects and better evaluate the additional needs of the communities. The Club has its own Foundation that has a 501-(c)3 status from the IRS. This Foundation is used to fund local projects in the Greater Phoenix area. More than $800,000 has been raised through fund raisers and personal contributions of the Club Members for these projects.

Club Projects

• Annual Scholarships to deserving Phoenix Union High School District students
• Volunteer for the Saint Vincent de Paul Food Bank
• Street Clean-ups for the City of Phoenix
• Birthday parties for special needs children at Gompers
• Volunteer paint parties for United Methodist Outreach Ministries homeless shelters
• Contributed to Phoenix Children’s Hospital
• Funded and built a shower for a handicapped resident
• Equipment plus
• Funded a year’s supplies for a dental clinic at the John C. Lincoln hospital in Sunnyslope serving homeless and underprivileged children
• Numerous motorized wheelchairs and chair lifts for permanently physically challenged children and adults
• A Prosthetic leg for girl who had lost her leg as result of tumor at birth; also we have replaced the leg as she has grown and requires refitting
• A shade structure covering the playground equipment at Ira A Murphy elementary school in Peoria, AZ
• Building a ramp for wheelchair access to a home occupied by a needy wheelchair- bound senior adult.

A sample of the Club’s international projects include:

• Equipment for a complete dental operating suite for an Esperanza hospital in Santarem, Brazil
• Security fencing for a High Risk Pregnancy Clinic in Yoro, Honduras
• A potable water system and delivery network for a village in Honduras
• After Hurricane Mitch, the Club collected and sent three container loads of clothing and supplies to ease the needs of suffering Hondurans. The Club, through Rotary, was able provide twenty-four triplex housing units for the displaced Hondurans
• A Kidney Dialysis machine for a hospital in India
• A fully equipped labor and delivery room for a hospital in India
• A fire engine for a community in Mexico
• A fully equipped ambulance for the Hermosillo, Mexico Fire Department
• EMT training was provided for the Bomberos who would be the crew on the new ambulance and had NO EMT formal training. It was provided through cooperation with Emergency Room physicians at the Maricopa County Hospital and the Phoenix Fire Department.
• Assisting with funding and providing hospitality for participants in the Gift of Life a Rotary project where children from developing countries who are “blue-babies” can be given a normal life with open heart surgery performed at a hospital in Phoenix
• In cooperation with the Wheelchair Foundation of America we provided, delivered, assembled and sized 60 wheelchairs for mobility challenged children and adults in Taxco and Cuernevaca, Mexico
• Rotarians of the world including members of the North Phoenix Rotary Club have given in excess $800 MILLION for Polio Plus - Rotary’s giant project to eradicate poliomyelitis throughout the world. When the project began in 1985 there were more than 1,000 new cases of polio EACH DAY throughout the world. Last year there were fewer than 2,000 new cases of polio for the entire year. In addition to gifts directly to PolioPlus, members of our club have self- financed trips to participate in country-wide immunization drives in India and Mexico. Sixty-seven million children were immunized recently on one such drive in India. The North Phoenix PolioPlus Chairman personally participated in the two week immunization and house-to-house follow-up in Uttar Pradesh, India - one of five areas in the world where poliomyelitis is still endemic
• Hosted exchange students from Australia, Brazil, France and Peru through a Rotary exchange program that costs the student only round trip airfare and health insurance to provide life changing experiences for these students
• North Phoenix Rotarians have led Rotary Group Study Exchange teams to India, Argentina, Australia and Denmark, a Rotary program to work for world peace through understanding
• North Phoenix Rotarians have also hosted exchange groups from several countries

Countless additional examples of SERVICE ABOVE SELF could be given to illustrate the serious intent and purpose of the members of the Rotary Club of North Phoenix to live out this motto in their daily lives within the community and the greater international reach of ROTARY. Countless additional examples of SERVICE ABOVE SELF could be given to illustrate the serious intent and purpose of the members of the Rotary Club of North Phoenix to live out this motto in their daily lives within the community and the greater international reach of ROTARY.