Our Projects

The Wilmington Rotary Club conducts many projects, large and small. The following links provide details about some of our larger multi-year efforts. Our projects originate with suggestions or requests from our members. To fund these projects, we typically rely on a combination of grants, some from our club's own non-profit foundation, and some from The Rotary Foundation, through District Grants and Global Grants. Our club's grant request form is available for download; see below.

Current activities include the Legacy Project, a partnership with Wilmington’s Williston Middle School; a Global Grant partnership with Salud Hondu, a medical clinic in rural Honduras; financial support for several groups helping Ukrainian orphanages and war refugees; child literacy through Williston Middle School, D.C. Virgo Academy, and six of New Hanover County’s public schools; assistance to the Rotary Cottage at the N.C. Boys and Girls Homes at Lake Waccamaw; support for the Rotary Wheel Garden at Wilmington’s Greenfield Park; and funding for KIVA Microfunds, which makes small loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Williston Middle School Legacy Project

Since 2011, we have partnered with this historic Wilmington school. Go to details, photos, how you can help

Service Above Self awards for first responders

This annual project honors law enforcement and public-safety professionals for service beyond the call of duty. Go to details.

Rookie Teachers of the Year awards

We give cash awards to five beginning teachers in the New Hanover County Schools. Go to details

Honduras medical clinic

Our latest Global Grant project will provide medical supplies to a rural health clinic in Central America. Details pending mid-2023.

KIVA micro-lending

We fund loans to small entrepreneurs in developing countries. Go to details.

Wilmington's Rotary Wheel Garden

The world's largest Rotary emblem is in Greenfield Park, our club's gift to the city in 1965. Go to details, history and photo

Guyana water projects

Between 2014 and 2019 we helped build water supplies for rural villages in South America. Go to details and photos of these Global Grant projects

Rotary International's End Polio Now campaign

Go to details and links

Grant request form

The Wilmington Rotary Club supports its projects through grants from two non-profit foundations. Our club's own foundation is supported by regular contributions from members, and by our annual fund-raiser. The Rotary Foundation, charitable arm of Rotary International, provides additional grants for both local and international projects.

Members of the club are encouraged to submit requests for funding each budget year. The club's grants committee evaluates these proposals and recommends those it considers most compatible with the club's goals and with Rotary's six areas of focus. The president, with approval from the club's Board of Directors, decides which grant requests to submit for District Grants from The Rotary Foundation, and which for local grants from our club's own foundation. Many projects are funded by both foundations.

The grant request form may be downloaded from this link. Download grant request form (PDF format).

Helping Ukrainian refugees in Moldova

Rotarians in Wilmington are sending money to partner agencies helping Ukrainian refugees in Moldova. Taking the lead is The Wilmington East Rotary Charitable Trust, a non-profit 501(c)(3) foundation, which has worked for years in Moldova. It is forwarding contributions, including those from Wilmington Rotary Club, to the Moldovan World Children’s Fund. Moldova is on Ukraine's southwestern border.

How you can help:

Give to the Wilmington East Rotary Charitable Trust. Fastest way is by phone with a credit card: Call Donna Flake of Wilmington East Rotary at 910-233-7835. Slower but also welcome: mail a check to Wilmington East Rotary Charitable Trust, PO Box 373, Wrightsville Beach, NC 28480. Be sure the "memo" line indicates "Ukrainian refugees.") See link below to the Moldova World Children's Fund.
This effort supports two of Rotary's Areas of Focus: Peace and Conflict Resolution, and Maternal and Child Health.

More help for Ukraine

On March 2, 2022, the Wilmington Rotary Club sent money to three organizations that are helping to relieve human suffering caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. We are updating information about these efforts as we get it and encouraging members and the public to help, too. The groups we are helping are:

• Wilmington East Rotary Club foundation. As of April 5, this non-profit group had collected $21,000 -- in addition to what it raised through its January fund-raiser -- that Rotarians in Moldova are using to buy relief supplies for Ukrainian refugees. That includes beds and bedding, heaters and refrigerators, food and water, essential medications, and raincoats. Moldovan Rotarians are also making daily trips to Kiev, driving trucks carrying food, and returning to Moldova with evacuated Ukrainian children.
• Moldova World Children's Fund. $1,000 club contribution. This organization is also supported by the Wilmington East Rotary Club's non-profit foundation (see above.) It is supplying relief to Ukrainian women and children who have fled to Moldova. For more information or to donate directly, go to moldovawcf.org
• New Life Ministries/International Orphan Resource Center. $1,000 club contribution. New Life Ministries, based in Raleigh, supports four orphanages in Chernihiv that serve some of the estimated 150,000 orphans in Ukraine. For several years, this club has provided both money and member service to the IORC's work in Ukraine. See a graphic status report from February 2022. The organization has been sending food to the orphanages in the war-ravaged Chernihiv region, some of which were under Russian occupation, as well as two others, in Odessa and Ternopil. See an early March report on this from Raleigh TV station WRAL. On April 12, members of this club gave another $425 in cash, in exchange for Ukrainian "pysanki" Easter eggs. Additional donations are welcome and urgently needed. To give, go to www.nlminfo.org and designate "IORC."
• UnitedHelpUkraine.org. $1,000 club contribution. This organization is backed by Rotarians in Wilmington and Raleigh. To learn more about the group or to donate, go to www.unitedhelpukraine.org.

Rotarians and others may also want to help Ukraine through Rotary International channels. Former RI President John Germ has reminded us that the Rotary Foundation has a dedicated Disaster Response Fund.

• Rotary Disaster Response. Rotary members and The Rotary Foundation play a unique role in disaster recovery and rebuilding efforts. Working closely with our partner ShelterBox and other organizations that specialize in disaster relief, Rotary members lead projects to support every phase of a community's recovery.