It was not just a feel-good event. The nonprofit executives shared business cards and explored ways to collaborate and share best practices with other nonprofits. Individual Madison Rotarians were motivated to support the recipient organizations financially or as volunteers.
Several comments touched heartstrings. Among them, Melanie Barry of Preschool Advantage spoke of a single mother of three young children who was able to afford childcare and work full time thanks to Rotary’s grant. Bob Butts of the Baroque Orchestra told how Rotary’s grant enables a performance at a local assisted living facility where a former colleague, stricken with Alzheimer’s, didn’t initially recognize Butts, but his memory was rekindled after hearing their music. Stacey Smollen of the Madison Eagle Christmas Fund explained how Rotary’s grant help fund gift cards that provide food for the holidays or allows a parent to select an appropriate gift for their child from a local business. And Lisa Firkser, Executive Director of CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) explained that Rotary’s grant helps fund the activities of CASA volunteers who provide a consistent relationship to a child who has been removed from their parents due to neglect, abuse or abandonment.