Sustaining Projects

Rotary Club of Andover has partnered with Friends of the Andover Cemetary to support Wreaths Across America. There are slightly over 200 veterans in the Andover Cemetary. Our goal is to remember and honor our veterans by laying wreaths on their graves in December each year.

The Zimbabwe Sunflower Oil project encourages farmers in Zimbabwe to grow sunflowers and harvest them for seeds. Harvested seeds are taken to the project’s refinery where they are refined into cooking oil. The project’s goal is to enable farmers to practice Sustenance agriculture, which occurs when farmers grow crops to meet their needs and then have enough produce remaining to sell for extra income.

The goal of the Rotary Club of Andover grant program is to engage our children and youth in opportunities that develop civic engagement and service attributes while creating positive change within our community. This grant program supports the Kansas Social, Emotional, and Character Development (SECD) standards that encompass practicing good citizenship as respectful, responsible, empathetic, and ethical individuals. Andover classrooms or school organizations can apply for mini-grants of up to $500. Our primary areas of focus are:.
• Leadership
• Community Service

The Rotary Club of Andover works in partnership with the City of Andover, Andover Fire Department, Andover Rental Center, and several local churches to help our neighbors who need assistance with cleaning up their properties. Projects include yard work, hauling trash, painting and some light carpentry for those who do not have the physical ability or resources to do this work themselves. The projects are submitted by various senior centers, city and county departments, local nonprofit organizations, and participating churches.

One of the core initiatives for the Andover Rotary Club is Supporting Education (to see the six main focus areas go to https://www.rotary.org/en/our-causes ). The Andover Rotary Club is built an outreach program to provide reading materials to at risk children in our community.

Rotary, along with our partners, has reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent worldwide since our first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979. We are close to eradicating polio, but we need your help. Whether you have a few minutes or a few hours, here are some ways to make a global impact and protect children against polio forever [ https://my.rotary.org/en/take-action/end-polio ].

During the school year there are programs that families in the school district can take advantage of to supplement their dietary needs, but these same programs are not available when school is not in session. To fill this gap in support, the Andover Rotary Club is proud to partner with the Andover Food Bank by helping to staff and supply a weekly lunch program for those in need in our community. Stations are set up at local schools over the summer where families can stop by to collect nutritious lunches for the week as they need.

The Andover Rotary Club has been a strong supporter of the Andover Food Bank [ http://www.andoverumc.com/andover-community-food-bank ] for many years. In a strong Partnership with the Andover United Methodist Church we help to ensure that the shelves remain stocked with supplies for those families in the community who may be experiencing need up to once per month and six times per year. You can help this worthy cause by visiting the link provided above!

Greater Andover Days is held every fall and the communities largest social event with over 5, 000 people attending annually. The festival includes a food court, KidFest, 5K fun run, parade, fishing clinic, car show, business expo / craft fair, carnival, ice cream social, live entertainment and a fireworks show in Andover Central Park. The Rotary Club is proud to volunteer extensively to make this annual community bonding event the success that it is.

Our club's very first community service project that began in 2003 and still going strong. In a partnership with the Andover Public Library, we deliver books and materials each month to home bound senior and disabled patrons who are physically unable come to the library in the Andover and surrounding area. You can learn more about Novel Journeys here or complete this form to sign up for this service.