Now that summer is winding down, cool weather is sneaking into the forecast, leaves are starting to change and the kids are back in school, it's a great time to give back to your community. In Rotary, we have many ways to serve that are grouped into the five avenues of service. But each club is different, so here's a list of the five avenues and what specifically you can do as a member of Baldwinsville Rotary to give back in each area!
 
Youth Service
Service projects and contributions that support our youth.
In Baldwinsville Rotary, we love our youth! It's always great when they visit us at club meetings and when we can work side-by-side with them. Here are some programs we are active with that you could get into through Rotary:
-Youth Exchange Program - bringing students from other countries and sending local students abroad to share cultures and build world peace one person at a time
-Rotary Youth Leadership Awards - a weekend-long leadership training for sophomores and juniors in CNY
-BOCES Scholarships - we support two $500 scholarships each year
-Baldwinsville Community Scholarship Fund - we support one $1,000 scholarship each year
-Backpack Project - providing students at Elden Elementary that are at-risk of experiencing hunger with backpacks of food each week to get them through the weekend
-Students of the Month - honoring two special students from Baker or Durgee that have shown a love of service and a dedication to hard work
 
Vocational Service
Rotary activities that celebrate the professional skills of members and the community, and recognize the importance of high ethical standards in business.
Every few years we hold a Pride of Workmanship Dinner, which gives employers in the community the opportunity to nominate a hard-working employee worthy of recognition at a special gathering. 
Many members offer up their professional expertise to support club activities, through event planning, communications, understanding legalese and much more.
Do you have professional skills you can bring to the table? Or perhaps a degree you don't get to use in your day job and could exercise through volunteering? 
 
Community Service
Activities that give back to the community or raise the funds needed to help others.
Baldwinsville Rotary has a ton of opportunities for giving back all year-round, but coming up before the end of the year we have:
-books that need boxing up for the CNY Books for the World program
-the Old Newsboys charity drive to raise money for the Christmas Bureau, providing families with food and gifts at Christmas
-our Dictionary Project to provide a dictionary to every third grade student in our school district in an effort to combat illiteracy
-the BackPack Project to help feed children at risk of hunger in our local schools
-a new Acts of Kindness program that we'll be implementing every month
And we're always looking for new ideas that we can implement as a club!
 
International Service
Club efforts to support Rotary International efforts or implement projects that will benefit people around the world.
Recently, Baldwinsville Rotary purchased a corn grinding mill to a village in Zimbabwe so they can now mill their own crops, instead of hauling them to another village, as well as help nearby villages. 
Every year we collect Pennies for Polio in coin jars at local businesses (and with generous donations from our own members) to support Rotary's commitment to eradicate polio worldwide. Since Rotary took on the challenge in 1985, when there were 350,000 new cases of polio crippling and taking the lives of small children each year, we now have only a handful of new cases and are making a push to finish strong in fully eliminating this debilitating and deadly disease from the face of the earth. This has only ever happened one other time in human history (small pox), so you will be hearing more and more as we celebrate World Polio Day on October 24th and get closer to announcing the last ever case of wild polio virus.
Right here in Baldwinsville, in meetings held at the Red Mill Inn, you can help people you will never meet in life-changing ways!
 
Club Service
Activities that ensure an effective and efficient club.
In Rotary, we are always looking for and providing training for new leaders. These are skills that carry over into your personal and professional lives too!
Not interested in being in charge? Great! We need helpers in many ways - like setting up or taking down meetings, helping with lunch at our Wednesday meetings, taking pictures while volunteering, finding interesting programs to teach us new things at our meetings and more.
We have a really amazing club and bringing value to our members' lives through fun, interesting and productive meetings is important to us!
 
Whether you want to work with youth, help create fellowship opportunities, share your professional expertise, serve people around the globe or make a difference right here in Baldwinsville, Rotary has it all. Plan to visit us at a meeting (schedule to the right) and bring a friend this fall!