Projects
Thirsty Thursday Social
Americus Rotarians gather on the 3rd Thursday of most every month to socialize and fellowship. We rotate restaurants throughout our community to help support our local economy...building better friendships and growing our local economy!
Club Bulletins
Weekly Club Bulletins examples - they are updated weekly and cover previous week's program, upcoming programs, events and information, as well as, member birthdays, wedding and service anniversaries.
Thirsty Thursdays
- La Hacienda - 7/16/2021
- Floyd's Pub - 8/19/2021
- Joint Social with Cordele at Cordelia's at the Lake Blackshear Resort - 9/7/2021
- Tinsel Tuesday at Daphne Lodge - 12/7/2021
- The Station - 1/20/2022
- Pat's Place - 2/17/2022
Free School Supplies
Collaborated with a number of businesses, organizations and entities to provide a massive school supply distribution opportunity for students in Sumter County using a drive-through design to ensure safety and social distancing. Rotary club distributed 250 bags with notebooks (with 4-way test sticker on cover), pencils, & pencil sharpeners to complement the items being distributed by other entities in our community. It was done on Jackson Street and designed so that a car could drive by and pick up items for school-aged children.
Volunteering to help with College Move-In Day
Rotarians volunteered and helped freshmen students move-in to the dorms at Georgia Southwestern University, including our own GRSP student, Christian Moeller.
Fed First Responders After Tornado hit community
Rotary answered the call to feed first responders and volunteers who jumped into action after a tornado hit a residential area in the northwest part of town. Rotarian Reda Rowell helped coordinate and serve meals.
Clean Up Americus Day
Rotary Club of Americus partnered with the City of Americus for the National Clean Up day.
Drive Thru COVID-19 Testing
Volunteers will partner with Phoebe Sumter Medical Center and the Sumter County Emergency Operations Center to help provide support in directing traffic and any other assistance, as people are directed into the facility parking to complete drive-thru nasal swabs.
Taste of Sumter Volunteers
Rotary provided volunteers for Annual Taste of Sumter in downtown Americus.
Support for Healthcare Heroes
Provided snack baskets for two healthcare departments in the hospital that were under-recognized for the service they provided and sacrifice they gave during the pandemic and the surge of the Delta variant - environmental services (custodial) and respiratory departments.
Volunteering with Downtown First Friday Event
Assisting with greeting and handing out literature to visitors and downtown shoppers during the once-a-month "First Friday" focus on promoting downtown and downtown businesses.
Peace Day Celebration
Rotary Club of Americus will host "Cake and Conversation" booth at the Peace Day Celebration in Downtown Americus - booth will feature law enforcement and government leaders available to answer questions and have open dialogue.
Project Vaccinate Our Community
Rotarians and other volunteers assisted with people wanting to be vaccinated. Helped with parking, giving directions, and helping with completing paperwork.
Rotary Mile Clean Up
Rotary Club of Americus adopted the mile on Lamar Street between Prince and Tripp Streets in Americus. In addition to helping clean up Americus, Rotarians also spend a Saturday cleaning up both sides of Lamar Street, a main route through town. We walk all the way to Hardee's where we enjoy breakfast before heading back down the opposite side.
Chemo Port Pillow Project
Rotarians worked with local woman-owned clothing manufacturer to create chemo port pillows and distribute to local oncology labs for cancer patients. The port pillows were manufactured for comfort from seat belt irritation at the site of the port-a-cath used for chemotherapy delivery. This project was funded through the District 6900 Grant via Rotary Foundation of Rotary International and the Americus Rotary Club.
Downtown Parade of Trees
Local Rotarians funded and decorated the Rotary Tree promoting #PeopleOfAction and the "Together We ...." Rotary themes in downtown Americus for the city's Parade of Trees event. Each participating organization sponsors a tree, and Rotarians decorated their tree with Rotary-themed decorations in colors. We used pictures taken during service opportunities and events to coincide with the Rotary branded pics.
Free Photos with Santa
Each year, the Americus Rotary Club offers free photos with Santa for families in our community. We also provide hot chocolate, cookies, coloring books, and crayons. Pictures are emailed to the families afterward.
Sponsored Santa for Shop with a Cop
Rotary Club of Americus sponsored Santa Claus for the annual Shop with a Cop event in which children in need, foster kids, and/or children who have a parent incarcerated are invited to join law enforcement officers for dinner and a shopping spree at Wal-Mart. Shopping cards are donated by Rotarians and other community leaders who "sponsor" a child each year. Children learn that cops are here to help and not harm. The most moving thing about this event is that most of the children shop for gifts for their families first.
School desks and chairs for local schools
Purchased 116 surplus school desks (via auction) to be distributed to all local schools in Sumter County, Georgia for use by students.
Wreaths Across America
Rotarians volunteered their time and made significant donations towards the Wreaths Across America. The mission of the Wreaths Across America organization is to remember our fallen U.S. veterans, honor those who serve, and teach our children the value of freedom. Each December on National Wreaths Across America Day, the Rotary Club of Americus volunteers to lay wreaths on the graves of veterans at Andersonville National Cemetery, and donates funds to purchase wreaths.
Coat and Winter Clothing Drive
Club collected coats, scarves, hats, gloves, shoes and clean socks for the senior citizens, and the homeless in our community. Collections were distributed to the homeless shelter and to senior citizens (shut-ins) by way of the Council on Aging delivering Meals on Wheels.
Support for Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership - SGTC
The Americus Rotary Club joins South Georgia Technical College in recognizing the GOAL winner for the year by providing a financial contribution to the student who will represent South Georgia Technical College as an ambassador for technical education.
Clean Care Hygiene Bags for Girls
Rotarians donated money and items for hygiene and ipsy bags (purchased by club) to assemble and present to Jess Sinclair, director of KEYS to Transformation who provides mentorship and coaching to young girls in our community. The training and hygiene bags will be used to help build a positive self image in pre-teen and teenage girls in Sumter County.
Donated Two College Scholarships
The Rotary Club of Americus continues its support of scholarships established and named for two lifelong members of its club. The late J. Willis Shiver and the Lake E.H. Kinnebrew, Sr. Both scholarships established at Georgia Southwestern State University for students in free enterprise, honor the memories of Mr. Willis and Mr. Kinnebrew wo each started successful business in Americus, GA which continue to flourish as a product of the American free enterprise system. Each scholarship awards $1,000 each to a student seeking a business degree and selected by criteria established.
Sponsored Laws of Life Essay Contest
Sponsored the Laws of Life Essay contest and work with Furlow Charter School for essay submissions.
STAR Students & Teachers Recognition
Club hosts luncheon and program honoring STAR Students and Teachers from each high school represented in our community. Each student was given the opportunity to introduce themselves and talk about their plans and goals for the future as well as talk about why they selected their respective teachers. Likewise, each teacher was able to talk about each student and what made them special and what their qualities were.
High School Heroes
Honoring high school students who have committed to military service. These students have to have completed paperwork with one of the branches of US military service. The students are recognized at a luncheon in their honor and are given duffle bags (embroidered with club logo) containing a Four Way Test coin in the pocket. Rotarians who are veterans lead the program designed to honor, empower, and encourage students who have made such a commitment.
Furlow Charter School Interact: Hungry for Change
Furlow Charter Interact “Serves to Change Lives” with a service learning project entitled "Hungry for Change" in which students collected change to support a food drive fundraiser and educated others about food insecurity to meet an identified need in Americus.
Rotary "Service Above Self" National Medal of Honor
In Rotary’s ideals of Vocational Service, our Law Enforcement, Fire Safety, First Responders, and other public safety personnel serve above self within their profession each day. They ask for a fair wage and the opportunity to serve, yet their level of service has the potential to far exceed normal expectations of “Service Above Self.” Rotary International developed a method for Rotary Clubs to honor those community heroes who share its motto of “Service Above Self” within their professions and the club reached out to leaders in law enforcement and public safety for nominations.
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA)
Rotary Club of Americus hosts RYLA for District 6900. It is held on the campus of Georgia Southwestern and is an intensive training program that brings together youth and young adults, ages 15-17, to further develop character and leadership skills and learn about Rotary. During the camp, youth do a personality profile, learn to work together, build trust, and learn conflict resolution while having fun and making connections. They complete a challenge course and escape room challenge, as well as, complete a service project during camp.
Youth and Peace in Action
In 2021-22, small teams of student leaders from 30 clubs participated in the Leading Peace Project Teams training and were coached and mentored to design a project idea related to one of nine key categories created by YPA and informed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, global surveys of young people, and insights collected from young people through #YPAvoices. Project teams use the UNLEASH Innovation Process and key peacebuilding frameworks to design a project idea that is shared in a format inspired by the Pecha Kucha style of presentation. The YPA leaders of Furlow Charter School in Americus led a peace project to establish student-to-student mentoring sessions over the course of the 2022-2023 school year. The mentors will be high school seniors with over two years more experience taking courses at a local college through the school’s dual enrollment program. The goal is to provide younger students with motivation and guidance throughout their high school experience to help improve attendance rates, SAT/ACT scores, and overall GPA, resulting in more students participating in the dual enrollment program. In doing so, more students in this rural community can elect to pursue a secondary education.