How Coachella Valley Rotary clubs are providing relief to Maui fire victims
The Maui wildfires beg the question: when disaster hits, what does the Rotary Club do?
Respond to disasters.
Since Rotary is in virtually every community across the globe, when natural disasters occur, Rotarians are frequently amongst the first to respond with relief assistance. The Rotarians who reside in a community affected by a disaster are best able to evaluate their needs.
When Hurricane Katrina hit the New Orleans area in 2005, the Camp Fire hit Paradise, California in 2018, or the epic California blizzard hit Crestline and the San Bernardino Mountain communities earlier this year, local Rotarians helped coordinate rescue and recovery efforts and assistance poured in from fellow Rotarians around the world.
Coachella Valley has 14 Rotary clubs with about 500 Rotarians and our district (5330) has 60 clubs with about 2,000 members. These clubs have all been involved in the aforementioned disasters and others, in large part with financial contributions, in addition to other donations of basic items, like clothing, blankets, food, etc.
The recent Maui fire has caused unfathomable destruction. Tens of thousands of residents have lost everything. There are nine Rotary clubs in Maui and some 1,500 Rotarians in Hawaii in total. As soon as they were able, Rotarians in Maui have been on the ground helping in every way they can.
Rotarians have responded with robust financial support, much of it channeled through the following online contribution link to the Rotary District 5000 Foundation.
That’s what Rotary does: help others.
What is Rotary? Rotary clubs are part of Rotary International, a service club organization founded in 1905 in Chicago by an attorney, Paul Harris. Presently, over 46,000 Rotary clubs exist in more than 200 countries and geographical areas, with 1.4 million Rotarians worldwide.
Each Rotary club has four responsibilities. One is to maintain or increase the local group’s membership. The second responsibility is to participate in service projects that serve the club’s local community, as well as global communities. Rotary clubs also support the Rotary Foundation financially. The final responsibility is to develop leaders to serve the organization beyond the club level.
All 14 of the Coachella Valley Rotary clubs are planning individual approaches to assisting with disaster relief. That is in addition to individual Rotarians making donations directly. Since the clubs range in size from under 10 members to close to 70, each club’s assistance will be different. And because the needs in Maui are not only immediate but also ongoing and long-lasting (recovery from this catastrophe is likely to take years), any given club’s plan will be different from other clubs’ plans in terms of timing.
Palm Desert Rotary Club, which is the valley’s largest Rotary Club and one of the oldest, is hosting a 75th Diamond Jubilee Luncheon Oct. 23, and it will be a major fundraiser. One of the club’s areas of focus is food insecurity, and in recent years it has channeled significant funds to area food pantries and Find Food Bank.
This year, the club has added “Maui disaster relief” to the Oct. 23 beneficiary list. Because the club has time to plan the event, there will be an opportunity to conduct collection drives for food, clothing, blankets and other items the disaster victims need. And a substantial portion of the financial surplus this event will generate will be allocated to the Maui fire relief fund.
If you are interested in getting involved in Rotary, or donating to one of our relief funds, visit the Rotary District 5000 Foundation website: https://rotaryd5000.org/
Ricardo Loretta is a past Rotary district governor Rotary Club of Palm Desert, the executive director of the Dr. Carreón Foundation and founder and past president of the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation. He lives in Palm Desert. His email is ricardo.loretta@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: How Coachella Valley Rotary clubs are helping the Maui fire victims
