16-05-2025
Rotary Club of Rock Island awards grants from foundation
The Rotary Club of Rock Island awarded $33,000 in grants to three local organizations through its charitable foundation, the Rock Island Rotary Foundation. The grants were announced and presented on May 13 during the club's weekly meeting.
The 2025 grant recipients include:
YWCA Quad Cities – $20,000 The grant will support transforming the former YWCA building in Rock Island into Alan's House, a youth group home shelter. Alan's House will provide supervised shelter, meals and vital services for homeless or displaced youth ages 10 to 17. The facility will begin with 15 beds and include restrooms and male/female shower areas.
Friendship Manor – $10,000 This funding will help create two Chrysalis Suites dedicated to hospice care. There no such facilities exist on the Illinois side of the Quad Cities at this time. The new suites will allow people to access hospice services while remaining close to home.
Project Now – $3,000 The grant will strengthen Project Now's Senior Meals Program, which delivers meals to help seniors, including those with disabilities, stay in their homes longer. The program delivered over 143,000 meals across the area in 2024.
'For 17 years, the generosity of our club's donors has turned compassion into action,' said Sue Rector, president of the Rotary Club of Rock Island. 'Thanks to unwavering support, the Rock Island Rotary Club Foundation has invested in organizations that uplift, inspire, and transform our community. I am so proud of our club's power of giving and the bright future it continues to build.'
Rotary member Bill Stengel mentioned the club's unique standing during the ceremony. 'The Rock Island Rotary Club is one of the few clubs nationwide with its own foundation.' The foundation was established in 2008 with a $200,000 bequest from the Stan Harris Estate, and has since grown to over $800,000, with a target of $1 million by 2028, the foundation's 20th anniversary. All funds are invested locally, managed by the club's Foundation Board of Directors and used exclusively for community impact
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