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District 6290
District 6290 is an
international district of sixty-two Rotary clubs, fifty-eight clubs
in northern Michigan and four clubs in northern Ontario spaced along
a three hundred sixty kilometre stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway
between Wawa and Blind River. These four clubs, with a combined
membership of about one hundred ninety, have contributed mightily to
community life and international service.
Community Service
The Rotary Club of
Sault Ste. Marie (1918) has constructed more than a dozen tennis
courts in the city. Since 1922, the Club has hosted a four day
Rotary fest that provides entertainment and sports activities for
the community and raises funds to support several service
projects. Since 1956, the Club has hosted a Sports Celebrity
Dinner honouring local athletes.
The Rotary Club
of Wawa (1961), with a membership of about thirty raises
funds for its several community, youth, and international service
projects through a Christmas nut sale and a radio auction. The
small town experienced a memorable event in 1997, when it hosted the
Rotary District Conference.
The Rotary Club
of Sault Ste. Marie North (1971) sponsors hockey and
ringette teams and the educational portion of the Algoma Fall
Festival, provides bursaries for Sault College, and subsidizes an
academic excellence program for high achievers in elementary and
secondary schools.
The tiny Rotary
Club of Blind River (1989) with a membership of fifteen
contributes, in co-operation with other groups, to several community
projects including minor sports, Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, a
Beaver hockey team, school breakfast programs, the purchase of new
hospital equipment for Blind River and Elliot Lake, kidney and
diabetes foundations, and an Adopt-a-Highway program.
Service to Youth
All four clubs participate
in a host of community and international service programs for youth.
Like most other Rotary Clubs in Zone 22, the four clubs participate
in the High School Exchange program and Group Study Exchanges. Since
1972, the four Canadian clubs have sent or received twenty-five to
thirty per cent of the students in the District’s Youth Exchange
program, about fifty in all. Every February, the four clubs host, on
a rotation basis, a weekend conference for approximately one hundred
students in the District’s Youth Exchange program. The students
enjoy a winter experience in northern Ontario each year.
Since 1923, the
Sault Ste. Marie Club has operated a program for the District’s
crippled children. Funds for this program come from the summer
Rotary Fest and a Snowarama in the winter. Since 1949, the Club has
participated in the Easter Seals Campaign, proceeds from which go to
the Rotary Children’s Centre operated by the Club for handicapped
children. To date, approximately one hundred sixty-five thousand
dollars has been invested in the Centre.
Since 1982, the
Sault Ste. Marie North Rotary Club has held an annual Leadership
Awareness Conference for fifty-four grade 12 students from area high
schools. Students are selected by the schools on the basis of proven
leadership. Similar to RYLA, the conference takes place in the
pleasant setting of a resort on the shore of Lake Superior, with
excellent food and opportunities for sports and outdoor activities.
The conference provides positive motivation and inspiration through
keynote speakers and discussion groups. The goal of the conference
is twofold: to expose young leaders to some of today’s leaders in
business, industry, education, sports, and religion that they might
learn from them in discussion groups; and to enhance the young
leaders’ awareness of their own potential and to encourage them to
use leadership in positive and creative ways. This four-day
conference has become Sault Ste. Marie North’s major community and
youth service project.
International Service
Rotarians and spouses in the
Rotary Clubs of Wawa and Blind River have taken part in N.I.D.
(National Immunization Days) in India. The Wawa Club has raised over
nine thousand dollars for Polio Eradication. The four Rotary Clubs
are strong supporters of The Rotary Foundation. Twenty-eight of the
thirty members of the Wawa Club are Paul Harris Fellows and
nine are benefactors. The tiny Blind River Club built
outdoor toilets and drilled water wells in partnership with the
sister Club of Hulna North in Bangladesh. Five of Blind
River’s members have served as Rotary International volunteers. |
