What happens to those bills you put in the Good News spittoon? Since the 2022-2023 Rotary year, those dollars have been multiplying and doing good in our community!
By Cathie Thermond
What happens to those bills you put in the Good News spittoon? Since the 2022-2023 Rotary year, those dollars have been multiplying and doing good in our community! Our first project took place this past month with Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence. (A brief description of this organization from their website is included at the end of this article.)
Beginning in July 2022, Good News funds have been deposited in the Saratoga Rotary Charitable Foundation account, rather than the Club account. (SRCF funds must be used for charitable purposes, unlike funds in our Club accounts, so they are usually tax deductible.) Also, since that time, Rotarians have been matching the Good News donations. This generosity began with Moe and Soheila matching the donations for an entire year! Since then, Cathie, Patti L, Jim and Terrie, have each matched for half a year. Our Good News funds, with matching, are running about $10,000 a year!
Before we started spending the funds, the Club board and SRCF developed policies for the allocation of these funds. Please contact Terrie if you would like policy details. The Next Door Solutions project was the first under this new policy; we anticipate many other projects happening this year. When this project was approved by SRCF, the Our Lady of Fatima Foundation graciously matched the $5,000 allocated to the Next Door, enabling The Rotary Club of Saratoga to be recognized as an event sponsor!
If you do the math, $2,500 of our weekly Club Good News donations turned into $10,000 to support Next Door Solutions! A huge thank you to all our generous supporters!
Next Door Solutions’ Annual Winter Open House took place on December 14. Each year Next Door hosts survivors and their children for a festive celebration with holiday gifts, a bounce house, carnival games, arts & crafts, and a tasty meal. Each survivor gets a gift card for presents, food, and essentials, while every child receives a new book, stuffed animal, and a special visit from Santa. Our Club, in addition to being a sponsor, provided the event with 100 stuffed animals (including the popular Squishmallows), 100 Safeway gift cards, and over 400 books for children of all ages. Thank you for bringing joy to the survivors and their children this holiday season!
About Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence (from the website: https://www.nextdoorsolutions.org/)
In 1971, our founder Bea Robinson Mendez, concerned about the lack of services and options for domestic violence survivors, gathered a small group of her friends to figure out a solution. They set up a shelter in a garage and established a hotline number to provide information and support to survivors. Unbeknownst to them, it would become the second domestic violence agency in California and the first bilingual domestic violence shelter in the nation. So began the story of Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence (NDS).
Domestic violence is the most prevalent form of gender-based violence, often the most frequently reported crime to law enforcement, and arguably the one with the greatest damaging effect on children and youth. We are the only stand-alone, domestic violence agency in Santa Clara County, answering approximately 15,000 crisis calls and serving an average of 3,000 survivors of domestic violence annually. Our comprehensive, compassionate, bilingual services are available free of charge to all women, men, LGBTQ and individuals across the gender spectrum and of varying abilities.