Learn about Rotary Programs, such as Rotary Youth Exchange, Rotaplast, Interact, and RYLA as well as associated programs, such as Rotaplast.
Rotary’s programs are developing the next generation of leaders, providing funding to make the world a better place, and making peace a priority. And our programs are not just for club members. Learn how you can make a difference in your community through Rotary.
Polio Plus
Rotary's Number one mission
Eradicating Polio from the planet
Rotary Youth Exchange
Experience the adventure of a lifetime
Study abroad programs create worlds of possibilities, lifelong memories and new friendships for both students and the families they live with during their time away. Designed for high school students, Rotary Exchange offers a fun, yet safe way to travel and immerse yourself in another country.
Interact Cafe
A phenomenal surprise that went beyond anything we’d hoped for!
The idea grew out of an awareness people like people who care, and enjoy a relaxed atmosphere where they can brainstorm and problem-solve. It also grew out of a concern that the link between Rotary clubs and their Interact clubs is often weak or broken. Many Interact clubs operate with little or no input form their sponsor clubs. And many Rotarians know very little about Interact. We can ALL do a better job of engaging youth in Rotary.
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) - District 7780
What is RYLA Leadership Camp?
RYLA is dedicated to developing the next generation of talented leaders. Rotary District 7780's RYLA serves rising juniors from seacoast New Hampshire and southern Maine.
The Leadership Camp is an interactive development program designed in enhancing leadership skills in the next generation of innovative leaders. Working with students after their sophomore year of high school, Rotary clubs throughout Rotary District 7780, select up to 144 students to participate in RYLA – Leadership Camp.
Upon arriving at RYLA, participants are assigned a Leadership Exploration Group (LEG) with up to 11 others. LEG’s spend four days exploring the intricacies of leadership and how it arises in the real world. Activities focus on team building, group problem solving, and interpersonal management within project teams.
Leadership Camp helps individuals increase their self-confidence, enhance leadership capabilities, and provides tools of communication. The result is an increase in self-efficacy, and the ability to enhance the communities you are involved in.
RYLA - District 7930
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards
RYLA is a weekend of leadership development for High School Sophomores and Juniors who have begun to exhibit leadership skills and want to take them to the next level. While the overall program is run by Rotary District 7930, each activity is carefully planned and facilitated by returning students from prior years.
RYLA - District 7910
2021 RYLA Online Leadership Academy (RYLA OLA)
District 7910 RYLA participants normally meet in early summer for an in-person 3-day conference that includes presentations, activities, and workshops on Leadership Fundamentals, Service, Ethics, Communication Skills, Problem Solving, Conflict Management, Community & Global Citizenship.
The attendees, high school sophomores, have told us that RYLA 7910 is “life-changing,” “amazing,” and “very cool.” Activities are designed to help students to stretch and grow. Our full program includes a variety of challenges and enriching sessions which allow them to learn about themselves and others. Students will engage with small and large groups in a program created by student input.
In 2021, District 7910 RYLA participants will have a unique opportunity to meet virtually for an online event in early summer which will includes presentations, activities, and workshops.
Rotaplast Cebu Mission
Saving smiles. changing lives.
Rotaplast is committed to helping children and families worldwide by eliminating the burden of cleft lip and/or palate, burn scarring, and other deformities. Working with local professionals, Rotarians, and other organizations, Rotaplast sends multidisciplinary medical teams to provide free reconstructive surgery, ancillary treatment, and training for the comprehensive care of these children.
Rotary District 7930 has participated in Rotaplast Missions to Cebu in the Philippines for the past 20 years.
Wrap-A-Smile
Wrap-A-Smile in Guatemala with Rotaplast
Rotary's Wrap-A-Smile project provides comfort quilts to children in Rotary-sponsored projects, with priority for kids receiving cleft lip/cleft palate surgeries. Started in Maine in 2001 by Rotarian Terry Hodskins to support Rotaplast, the project is now a national program with regional coordinators. While overseas missions are on hold due to COVID-19, Wrap-A-Smile is actively seeking other Rotary initiatives within the U.S. where our quilts could provide comfort.
ShelterBox USA and District 7890
District 7890 Recognized by ShelterBox USA
ShelterBox reached 200,000 people in 2020, bringing the total served since our founding twenty years ago to over 1.7 million people sheltered. We could not have reached them without the club and district support like yours. Your sustained help enables up to be better prepared to respond quickly and efficiently to reach families when disaster or conflict damages or destroys their home. Here is a link to our 2020 Year in Review https://www.shelterboxusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2020-YEAR-END-FINAL-COM.pdf
District 7890 is being recognized for your help over our first 20 years as being one of the Top 20 all-time Rotary District supporters of ShelterBox USA! This is a cumulative total from clubs and other district giving. Your certificate of appreciation is attached.
If you did not get a chance to attend our virtual event “An Evening to Experience ShelterBox” you can watch it here. The event includes reports from around the world and stories from those we serve. www.shelterboxusa.org/virtual
On behalf of ShelterBox President Kerri Murray, our Board of Directors, staff, volunteers, and especially the families we’ve helped, thank you!
Bicycle Safety Helmets
Bicycle Safety Day in Bedford with Safe Kids Worldwide
Rotary’s Bicycle Safety Day provides free helmets to children in all grades to encourage safe riding habits. Rotary Clubs can purchase helmets at a discount through the Safe Kids program that has Bell Sports as a sponsor. Started over 20 years ago with a state grant to the local police department, then Rotary took over the program and partnered with Bedford Police to run Bicycle Safety Day to prepare students for the Pan Mass Kids Challenge and back to school preparations. Parents have expressed gratitude for saving their children from serious injuries.
Gift of Life D-7980 ..... Fixing Little Broken Hearts
Finding District Partners to involve many Clubs at once
Gift of Life is a collaborative effort involving many Rotary Clubs, Districts, The Rotary Foundation, Gift of Life Organizations, Gift of Life International, corporations, several non-profits, and our international medical team of volunteers providing cardiac care to the underserved children born with a congenital heart defect. Without this care, their future would be dim.... or not at all.
♥ Our medical team volunteer members are paired with members of the Dominican Pediatric Cardiovascular team, to provide focused training through lectures and hands-on techniques while caring for the children receiving care.
Our objective is to enhance and expand upon the skills required to determine the proper diagnosis, treatment plan, and perform cardiac surgeries and catheterizations (diagnostic and interventional).
♥ Volunteer team members expand their knowledge too by sharing methods and techniques from their home medical facilities and experiences with fellow volunteers.
♥ We pool our resources to maximize the benefit from each donated dollar to provide safe quality care to as many impoverished Dominican kids possible, while improving the skills of the local medical community.
♥ All who are touched by our program come away far richer then before, while forging lifelong friendships
along the way.
For additional information contact Lynda Hammond, Rotary D-7980 Gift of Life - Email: lynda.hammond1@sbcglobal.net
Children are our most valuable asset and our path to world peace
Bedford Rotary Club &
Rise Against Hunger®
Meals for Kids, Globally and Locally
For 7 consecutive years, the Rotary Club of Bedford has partnered with community volunteers, RCs of Burlington Breakfast/Lunch, Tyngsboro-Dunstable, MIT Rotaract, and large corporations to package over 400,000 meals in nutritious rice-based packages. We welcome all Rotary Clubs to our fun-filled, high-energy program, which is the largest of the Rise Against Hunger (RAH) programs in the Northeast. The meals packaged will serve malnourished students around the world. The school meals attract children to educational programs and prevent dropouts - especially girls - while simultaneously alleviating short-term hunger and enabling children to learn, encouraging self-sustainment and to break the cycle of poverty in our lifetime.
In addition, during our RAH event, we have collected and donated hundreds of pounds of high quality food and personal hygiene items to the Middlesex Community College Food Pantry to alleviate food insecurity facing our local college students.
Sleep in Heavenly Peace®
Helping Children in Need Sleep Better
All children deserve a safe, comfortable place to lay their heads. Across the US, too many boys and girls go without a bed—or even a pillow—to sleep on. These children end up sleeping on couches, blankets, and even floors. This can affect their happiness and health.
That’s where Sleep in Heavenly Peace® comes in. We’re a group of volunteers dedicated to building, assembling and delivering top-notch bunk beds to children and families in need. In District 7910, a Concord Rotarian leads the Middlesex Chapter in partnering with multiple Rotary Clubs to deliver beds to needy children in Massachusetts.
Habitat for Humanity®
Strength, Stability and Self-Reliance through Shelter
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Lowell, marking its 30th year of existence in 2021, typically completes 2-3 house projects per year. New owners put sweat equity into the construction of their homes-to-be but it's thousands of volunteer hours that do most of the work. For 2 days in 2021, 10 Concord Rotarians joined 10 Bedford Rotarians to help renovate and convert an older, ranch-style house, in Concord, into separate individual homes for two qualified families families selected to participate in the Habitat for Humanity program.
Rise Against Hunger®
SERVE LOCALLY. IMPACT GLOBALLY!
Since the launch of Rise Against Hunger’s meal packaging program in 2005, Rotarians have packaged nearly 31 million meals for distribution around the globe. Rotary is a critical link to helping Rise Against Hunger meet the United Nations goal of ending world hunger. Rotarians are known for achieving ambitious goals, evidenced by Rotary International’s success with its eradication of polio initiative. Rotarians have now packaged meals with Rise Against Hunger in 11 countries including South Africa, Malaysia, Philippines, Italy, India, Peru, Australia and South Korea. During Covid 19 last year Rotarians continued helping us making an impact locally and virtually! We invite you to explore the same great events we have had with a number of options to give any club an opportunity to serve!