Stories

The Rotary Club of Ojai Educational Foundation (RCOEF) annually gives over $150,000.00 in scholarships to High School graduating seniors from the Ojai Valley. In 2022 we awarded $155,000.00 in scholarships.

In celebration of Rotary Club of Ojai’s 75th anniversary year, we’re giving $25,000 to Ojai Valley area non-profit organizations.  Organizations that serve residents anywhere in the Ojai Valley are encouraged to apply.  This year’s focus will be on projects with an environmental, youth and/or educational impact. 

Click here for the Grant Application Form.

Submit completed applications to ojairotarygrants@gmail.com before the February 28 deadline.

Every year Rotary Club of Ojai sponsors the Ojai Fourth of July Freedom Run, an event where every kid is a winner.  An hour before the Ojai July 4th parade starts, children ages 2 to 12 line up at the Post Office tower and run a loop down Ojai Avenue.

 

Rotarian Drs. Bob Skankey and Fred Fauvre started the event 27 years ago to encourage youth fitness.  As in past years, Fred and his loyal volunteers, including his daughter, Rotarian Renee Halbrook, arrived early July 4th to blow up helium balloons for an arch across Ojai Avenue, register eager participants, and organize fun warm-up exercises using a parachute.  Once kids (sometimes accompanied by supportive parents) were lined up at the starting line, Rotary Club of Ojai President Marty Babayco started the race.

 

  Some kids were experienced runners, and for some it was an accomplishment just to complete the half-mile or one-mile race, especially if they were preschoolers.  Each participant got cheered across the finish line and was given a ribbon and a bottle of water at the end.  About 50 kids participated, and it was a real feel-good smalltown event.  The kids felt good about themselves, and parents appreciated having something like this for their kids.

 

  Thanks to Fred Fauvre for his longtime leadership, and to Renee Halbrook for enriching the community with the July 4th Freedom Run!

     

Rotary Club of Ojai’s projects aren’t always about giving money, although we did buy LOTS of baby wipes for Secure Beginnings Diaper Bank with a $3,000 district grant in April 2022. Last Wednesday during a record-breaking heat wave, intrepid Rotarians Wendy Barker and Tessa Turner and friend Dee Bennett helped Secure Beginnings move a roomful of Diaper Bank supplies to a storage pod. That is the true definition of “sweat equity” and service above self! 

 

The Rotary Club of Ojai’s International Service Committee (ISC) is a very active part of our Club. Over the past several years, we have developed long-term, close working relationships with communities in several countries such as Roatan, Niger, India, Bosnia, Ghana, and Cuba. Ojai Rotary has provided grants to support and help create sustainable, positive change in the areas of medical care, economic development, education & literacy, and water & sanitation. Here is a partial list of our club’s international projects:

 

 

Our $87, 515 global grant for education for indigent children in Puri, India, has been funded, and work is underway!  This is the culmination of hundreds of hours of work by Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Ojai, CA (D5240), and Srikshetra Puri Rotary Club in Puri, Odisha, India.

This grant will enable Prashanti International School (PIS) to provide quality education kindergarten through high school for indigent and fatherless children from Puri and surrounding villages, with an emphasis on English language learning and building strong values.  

The most urgent task is to complete the outside work before monsoon season starts in June, when torrential rains will make it impossible to dig foundations for the boundary wall and gates, grade the school grounds for flood control, or build the approach road.  It looks like we will meet this seasonal challenge.  Thanks to contractor Rtn. Rabi Mohapatra for starting work as soon as the grant was approved, rather than waiting for funds to be deposited into the bank account on April 12!  

These costly physical improvements bring Prashanti School one step closer to receiving the certification as an English education high school, so that bright indigent students will be eligible for exams that open up educational and vocational opportunities unimaginable without this schooling.

The photos below document the progress on the project in April 2019. What they do not show is the wonderful collaborative relationship, respect, and friendship that have developed between the Puri and Ojai Rotarians and the school principal as a result of the almost-daily WhatsApp communication about the grant.

Please click HERE for photos.