Meals of Hope
Wow. We have just completed the initial Surprise & Sun City West Effort for Meals of Hope on October 25 at the Ottawa University Faith Arena Lobby. This effort was the culmination of months of planning, fundraising, connecting with the City of Surprise and advertising within our local communities.
We started this effort after Phil and Sally saw an advertisement in our Rotarian Magazine in February 25.Turns out this service project is similar to the Feed my Starving Children event we had just completed in February at Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Sun City West, but with the food staying locally. We initially met with Debbie Sullivan on March 14 at Phil’s house and discussed the financial ramifications, what volunteer efforts would be required (how many, how the work would go) and where the food would go. With Phil’s and Sally’s leadership we took this to the Board. We then met Jesse Ramirez at the Valley View Community Food Bank to solidify the logistics of delivering the packaged food on March 25. The Club Board agreed to pursue this project at our April Board meeting and went forward with pursuing a City of Surprise COP grant (not successful) and a District 5495 grant (which was successful). The Charitable Fund of Surprise & Sun City West Rotary Club agreed to provide the initial funding for the project ($8750) and we were off. Jim, Sally, Glenn and others kept chasing funds and worked with the City to put into its Day of Service.
The time to make this happen just flew. Even during the Summer slowdown in activities, Jim Schlenvogt, Phil and others kept looking for ways to make this project happen. Finally, Surprise solicited volunteers to participate in this food packing event. We limited it to the first 100 volunteers to keep from being overwhelmed and the volunteer list filled up after 3 days. Amazingly we still decided to allow Rotarians to support (kind of our swing volunteers). When the day of the event happened, we had over 60 volunteers that had registered show up and used our great Rotarians (and a few Lions and others) to fill the other spots. We packed over 25,000 meals and cleaned up. This was a wonderful event and incorporated community volunteers, the Ottawa University Women’s Basketball Team, Lions Club and Rotary Club members (from Peoria North and Surprise & Sun City West). We made a lot of connections, and a great time was had by all.
We would like to thank all our Major Partners in this project. Beginning with the Rotary Club of Surprise & Sun City West and the Charitable Fund of the Surprise & Sun City West Rotary Club, Meals of Hope led by Debbie and Greg Sullivan without this could not have happened, Rotary District 5495 who provided us a $2500 grant to start this off, Seeds of Hope International Ministries, Spirit of Grace Lutheran Church, Desert Garden United Church, Ottawa University for both volunteers (the Women’s Basketball team and providing us the space in Faith Arena), the City of Surprise Human Services and Vitality Dept. for their support and soliciting and checking in all our wonderful volunteers and of course all our wonderful volunteers.
Here are some pictures of the event. We hope to make this an annual event and look forward to next year’s packing event making it even bigger.
Other October Events
In addition to the wonderful Meals of Hope Event, October was a busy month for other projects and service opportunities. We hosted the Sounds of Autism team Building event with the necessities packing event at the Colonnade on Oct 14. with volunteers from Colonnade residents as well as Rotarians.
and Glenn Schmitt led the program discussing the Rotary Foundation and how Rotarians can make a difference through their donations.
On October 18, we helped at the Valley View Community Food Bank with a robust volunteer effort of Rotarians and others and a great time was had.
Our meeting of Oct 28 was busy as well. Traci had a few recognitions for members of her board who escaped (left) as snowbirds. Phil and Sally were recognized for their service.
Let us know about his background and Journey this evening as well.
We welcomed new member Annette Aurelio and are looking forward to her journey with our club. Annette is a previous Rotarian and brings us her experience elsewhere.
Our speaker for the evening was Annie Ansell, the Executive Director from the Dysart Community Center.
Annie was introduced by Sally Williamson and let us know about the missions of the Center, teaching and leading adults and Children in English as a second language, helping adults earn their GEDs and being a place for children in our community. The Center established in 1962 provides educational resources to families on the verge of poverty with an abundance of volunteer tutors. Louisa Kellam also came to tell us about her experiences with Dysart and how she is motivated to help these families lift themselves out of poverty by educational opportunities.
Upcoming Events.
The Military Appreciation night is Nov. 5 at the Colonnade, and we are participating in the Veterans Day Parade in Surprise on Nov. 11.
In addition, the District Governor, Jim Schmidt, will be making his Club visit to the November 25th meeting.
Remember to look for those sponsors and golfers for our Fore The Kids Tournament in December, recruiting restaurants and sponsors for the 2026 TOS & Arts Festival, and get ready to ring bells for the Salvation Army. We’ve done great and will keep it up.
What a busy summer!
Great Job!
