Carmi Rotary Club Hears From Brownsville Foundation
The Carmi Rotary club received and update on the Brownsville School Foundation at Thursday’s meeting. Foundation board members, Pam Deig (President) and Mallory Stendeback (secretary) were on hand to let the club know what has happened with the project since the last time they were at a meeting.
The pair explained that the group was started in May, and became official on June 18th of this year. On that date, the Foundation became a recognized charity with a 501(C3) designation.
The Foundation’s goal is to renovate and improve the playground at the Brownsville school. They explained that a lot of people do not realize that the Brownsville School services a nine county area: Edwards, Gallatin, Hamilton, Hardin, Pope, Saline, Wabash, Wayne and White. Currently the school has 64 students, ranging from six to twenty-one years old.
When the decision was made to help the school, the Elks Club stepped up to the plate and has been the leader of the project. Working with Elk’s Clubs in other towns within the nine county area, much progress has already been made, with a lot left to go.
The project has been divided in to two phases, with phase one involving updating the existing playground and adding new equipment to the area. So far, the ground work has been started, with drainage and other ground surface work already completed. The Boy Scouts have also joined in, doing a lot of the brush clearing that had to happen prior to the ground work being done.
Phase two of the project will be to install all new inclusive playground equipment. Inclusive equipment means playground equipment that can be accessed by any handicapped child, such as swings that are built to handle wheelchairs.
Pam and Mallory stressed that no donation is too small, and they are still going to need funding to get the project finished. A Rotary grant is underway that will provide close to three thousand dollars, and without a doubt, there will be lots of free help that will defray some of the labor costs associated with such a big undertaking.
The Foundation will also be selling t-shirts soon. The shirts will cost fifteen dollars for youth-small up to adult x-large, sixteen dollars for adult 2x, and seventeen-fifty for sizes 3x and 4x. The shirts will be custom ordered to reflect the colors of the local school
Another fundraiser will be taking place this Sunday from noon to four at the Carmi Elk’s club as the club hosts a vendor fair. There will be plenty of great Christmas items on hand, with a portion of the proceeds going to the BSF.
Lastly, the ladies mentioned a very easy way for anyone to help out. Anyone buying from Amazon this season (or in the future) can click on the “Amazon Smile” button and follow the links to highlight the Brownsville School Foundation charity. Once you’ve done this, five percent of your purchase price will be donated to the organization.
In club news, the members discussed having a “Get to know Rotary” dinner on Tuesday, January 29th to invite potential members to an educational evening to learn more about the international service club. Many more details will be posted over the next few weeks for this event.
Tom Logan won the 50/50 drawing, and for the second week in a row, the ticket winner also managed to pull the pink ball from the can to claim the week’s cash pot.
Dale Peters named Lyn Stephens as the day’s phantom.
The Carmi Rotary club meets every Thursday at noon at the First United Methodist Church on Main Street in Carmi. Anyone wishing to learn more about this civic organization is welcome to attend a meeting or speak with any Carmi Rotarian.
