Aloha from Lobster Fest! This year, the event went Hawaiian to raise funds for service organizations that benefit youth. Four local Rotary clubs, including our Eagle/Garden City Rotary Club, joined together Saturday, Sept. 28, at BSU's Jordan ballroom for a dinner and auction. And we had a wonderful time!
Members of the Interact Club at the Idaho Fine Arts Academy, sponsored by our club, helped decorate this year. Youth members designed and painted four surfboards in the Hawaiian theme. In a surprise move, organizers decided to auction off the surfboards and contribute the funds raised to the IFAA Interact Club. These talented students walked off with $750 to further their goal of providing girls with a year of education at the Caring Hearts High School in Kenya. Each year, the club supports four girls at $600 a piece (including schooling, clothing and other needs), so this windfall put a big dent in the amount they need to raise! It is so wonderful to see young students living the Rotary object of service and international understanding as they seek to help others.A significant amount of the funds raised each year support Hope House in Marsing, a facility that gives a home to children with challenging needs. In addition, each of the four Rotary Clubs (Eagle/ Garden City, Boise Sunrise, Boise Southwest and Nampa) select youth charities to benefit from the funds raised.
Our club prides itself on being very youth oriented. In the past, we have used revenues from our fundraisers to give dictionaries to third-graders at several schools, sponsor a Christmas party for underprivileged children at Pierce Park Elementary, hold a luncheon and grant Persistence Awards for deserving teens at Eagle Academy, sponsor a Rotary Youth Exchange student to our district, support programs at the Boys & Girls Club, buy books for Whittier school, and help other worthwhile youth projects.