Opportunities for volunteering and more in new UWT partnership with Boys & Girls Club
By Kristin Dellavecchio
Tacoma 8 Rotary, who has sponsored UWT’s Rotaract, offers various volunteer programs for students to get involved with, and the club also invites those interested to attend career development seminars.
The 8th oldest in the world, Tacoma 8 Rotary has over 300 members, and outnumbers every rotary in its district – and it continues to grow. Vice President of the UWT Rotary Megan Nation said, “I personally adore the UWT Rotaract and those involved within the club and those who support us.”
The club’s career development gives members the opportunity to attend seminars that discuss various careers, meet local professionals, develop and expand networking, and much more. The Rotary hosts volunteer programs such as Emergency Food Network Repacks, a monthly program that provides food for those in need. Dining with the Stars is a new program to the UWT Rotaract which provides Thanksgiving dinners for the less fortunate through the Boys & Girls Club of South Puget Sound. The District Wide Program is involved as well, which specifically focuses on the needs of the community.
This year the UWT Rotaract joins Tacoma 8 Rotary in partnering with the Boys & Girls Club of South Puget Sound for the first time. There will be a literacy program for children from grades K-3, and a teen program for high school students.
In the literacy program, volunteers spend an hour reading to children. Nation said, “Literacy is important to Rotary International and all the clubs around the world, and children’s literacy is an issue in the community that needs more attention – which is what we plan to do.”
For the teen program, volunteers will act as a role models, guiding the teens and building one-on-one relationships. These programs will take place every Friday, with the literacy program starting at 4:30 p.m. and the teen program starting at 5:00 p.m. The duration of these programs has not yet been set, but they will last anywhere from four to eight weeks.
They are scheduled in the evening to cater to those who have work and school. “My goals, which are consistent with the rest of our team, are to grow the club, reach out to lower level students, provide more programming which are family friendly, provide programming at different times of the day and during the week to accommodate those who work, build new community relationships, and grow members as leaders in the community,” said Nation.
Both programs will be located within the Tacoma 8 Rotary district at a Boys & Girls Club. There are six Rotaract clubs within the 5020 District that can be found on the web. The closest Boys & Girls Club to the University of Washington is Al Davies at 1620 S. 17th St. Tacoma, WA. For more information about the UWT Rotary email uwtrot@uw.edu or attend an upcoming meeting.
