Here are a few of our projects:

Loucks Games... Annually, our club sponsors the Glen Loucks Games, a renowned track and field event which is the largest high school meet in the USA, held every year at White Plains High School. Read Charlie Goldberger's reports on the track meet and our role supporting it:

Scholarships...  In 1961, the White Plains Rotary Club, under the leadership of Dr. Morton H. Flaherty, established the Scholarship Foundation. Our own Club committees oversee the management and investment of the capital of the fund; and determines the beneficiaries of the income of the fund, by soliciting college-bound applicants from the White Plains High School, Stepinac High School and Good Counsel School. The scholarships are distributed on the basis of grades, school activities including athletics, worthiness of financial requirements and all-around good youth citizenship.

In the beginning...  Our first significant community project came in 1920 when we sent 42 boys to the Westchester County YMCA camp located on Great Captain's Island in Long Island Sound off the shore from Port Chester.

The boys were transported by auto to Port Chester and then by boat to the Island. Each boy was provided with two blankets and enjoyed two weeks at camp. This project was so successful that the following year, 1921, we provided for 60 boys. To help defray the expenses, the Club staged a minstrel show in which all of the members took part.

Through voluntary contributions from the Club members in 1925 and 1926, we were able to give the White Plains Hospital a new Cadillac ambulance, which was badly needed to replace an old Ford station wagon. Also, at about this time, a Student Loan Fund was established to help needy students finish their education.

Projects in early years...

• providing eye glasses for needy children in the public schools,
• transporting mentally handicapped children to the Atypical School on North Broadway,
• transporting physically handicapped children to various hospitals,
• purchasing a moving picture projector which our club members took to different children's hospitals in the area and showed movies to the children several times a week.

Fundraising...  One of our most successful fundraisers was the golf match that was held for 13 years beginning in 1963 at the Fenway Country Club. These exhibitions featured outstanding PGA tournament players, as well as some sports celebrities.   Among the celebrities who played in the golf tournament was Willie Mays. This was followed briefly by a tennis classic starring leading professionals under the sponsorship of AMF at the County Center.  Amongst the stars who played in the tournament was Arthur Ashe.  One of our members was an executive at AMF, which helped line up the golf participants and later the tennis participants.

The proceeds from these two events netted over $575,000 for the benefit of the White Plains Hospital and St. Agnes Hospital (a huge amount for that time).

Swedish Concert...   In 1981, Charlie Goldberger chaired an event when a Swedish Youth Orchestra (sponsored by a Swedish Rotary district) came to the United States to entertain at the RI Convention in Chicago that year. They stopped in New York for 3 days. We were their host and we met them at the airport, took them to Marymount College in Tarrytown where we had arranged for them to reside, and arranged for a concert at the United Nations which was well received. They also put on a joint concert in White Plains with a local chorale group which was a big success and nice fundraiser. One day, we split them up and they visited with Rotary families. Of course, we also took them on a sightseeing tour of New York City.

Other activities of the Rotary Club of White Plains:

• Held road races.
• Annually we ring the bell for the Salvation Army
• Repaired homes run by the WARC,
• Conducted Christmas parties for the underprivileged of White Plans,
• Collected sweaters for the homeless,
• and provided services at the Burke Rehabilitation Center.
• Donated money to help feed the homeless in Westchester
• Assisted in the construction of recreational facilities for the handicapped
• Helped underwrite a program for educating high school students in the operation of the UN
• Held auctions that that enabled us to donate $30,000 to the benefit of the Neonatal and maternity center at W.P. Hospital and the Children’s Rehabilitation Center of Saint Agnes Hospital.
• Participated in soap box derbies to benefit the American Red Cross and our club Foundation.

Some Recipients over the years have included:

• The Ecumenical Food Pantry
• Hospice Program of the White Plains Medical Center
• Our Scholarship Fund
• St. Agnes Hospital Chemical Dependency Program
• YMCA Youth Program
• Approximately $50,000.00 to the Polio Plus Program
• St. Bernard's Head Start
• College Careers
• White Plains Child Day Care Association
• Cage Teen Center
• The Lord's Pantry
• YMCA Day Care Program
• White Plains Beautification Foundation

International Projects

We also supported a number of International community service projects, including:

• Our club sponsored a program (named “Contact Point”) of donating dental equipment and services to Jamaica and other countries;
• In 2000 and again in 2004, we arranged for fire trucks to be shipped to towns in Ecuador, where there was no fire fighting equipment;
• We gave financial support for the construction of a school in Calderon near Quito, Ecuador;
• We arranged to transport a laundry unit to Hospital Rosario Lacayo in Leon, Nicaragua;
• White Plains Rotararians assisted in building shelters for outdoor school facilities in Spanish Town, Jamaica, West Indies.

Click here for a report filed by Rotarian Evan Delman on September 10, 2004 regarding the White Plains Club's 2004 Mission to Ecuador.

White Plains ROTARY CLUB:  This is a club where you can achieve much by participation.