Odessa Rotary Club Projects

Apple Orchard
     Promotes financial support for the District's Apple Orchard Project as a means of supplying food for the hungry.

Associates Day
     Promotes "Associates Day" during October and encourages members to invite a colleague to a Rotary meeting.

Cancer Walk
     Recruits members to participate in the annual American Cancer Walk-a-thon.  Members are asked to walk and/or make financial contributions to the Cancer Society.

Centennial Project:  The Bush Home
     The Odessa Rotary Club, in conjunction with The Odessa Board of Realtors, devoted many hours to the restoration of The Bush Home located behind the Ellen Noel Art Museum of the Permian Basin.

Christmas in April
     Provides an opportunity for Rotarians to assist in renovating a house for low-income individuals or couples, granting priority to the elderly or disabled within the community.

City Employee Award
     Club sponsored recognition and award for the City of Odessa "Employee of the Year."  A Rotarian serves on the selection committee and the recipient is announced at a club meeting and presented with a monetary award.

Easter Seals Telethon
     Rotarians originally established the International Society for Crippled Children which has evolved into the Easter Seals as we know it today.  Rotarians volunteer to take phone calls and handle pledges during the telethon each year.  Funds raised at the telethon support local disability rehabilitation through the Permian Basin Rehabilitation Center.

Everett Berry Award
     Everett Berry, prior to his death, was a respected Rotarian who was also the purchasing agent for Ector County and he was the first County employee to be recognized for his high standard of ethical professional contributions to the County.  Each year the employee selected Employee of the Year receives the Everett Berry Award.

Four Way Test
     Promotes the Rotary Four Way Test through poster and essay contests.

Globe Theatre
     Assists the Globe Theatre in the revitalization of the Annual Odessa Shakespeare Festival.  Promotes participation and support of Rotarians in all Globe events.

Group Study Exchange
     The Group Study Exchange (GSE) program is a unique cultural and vocational exchange opportunity for young business and professional men and women in their initial years of professional life.  The program is designed to develop professional and leadership skills among young people to better prepare them to address the needs of their communities in an increasingly global workplace.  Candidates for team membership are currently employed in a recognized business or profession on a full-time basis and are between 25 to 40 years of age.  Only the team leader can be a Rotarian.  The committee chair is responsible for finding host families for the team members to stay with during their visit and shall schedule other events and activities of professional and/or personal interest to the visiting team members.

Guerrero Clinic, Guerrero Mexico

Habitat for Humanity
     Odessa Rotary Club adopted Habitat as a Community Service project in 1999.  Continued support is predicated on the continuation of the local Habitat program.

Hunger Plus, Inc.
     Odessa Rotary Club makes annual donations to Hunger Plus, Inc.

Junior Achievement
     Encourages individual Rotarians to participate and promote the Free Enterprise System and perhaps recruits students to report at a club meeting the impact of the presentations.

Law Day
     Makes arrangements for the Ector County Bar Association to meet with the Rotary Club during National Law Week.  At the joint meeting, the Bar Association announces the winner of their Liberty Award and presents the award to an individual outside of the profession who has made an impact on the profession.

Literacy
     Literacy is an ongoing concern of Rotary International and the Odessa Rotary Club, from time to time, takes on various projects to promote literacy within our community.

Mexican Dinner (Fundraiser)
     This committee coordinates preparation activities and promotes ticket sales for an annual Enchilada Dinner.  ECISD Food Service prepares the enchilada dinners at Permian High School and Odessa High School.  Rotarians are recruited to take tickets, bus tables, serve drinks and help with carry-out orders.  Funds raised go to support various Rotary projects.

Mexico Project
     District project to provide educational and medical assistance to residents of villages in and around Madera, Guerrero, and Creel, Mexico, thereby enhancing their quality of life.

Odessa Rotary Club Memorial Foundation
     Oversees the foundation's disbursement of benevolent funds received toward scholarships for students attending Odessa College and UTPB.

Paul Harris Fellowships
     Paul Harris Fellows are Rotarians who have contributed $1,000 or more to the Rotary International Foundation.

Paul Harris Sustaining Members
     Rotarians who have contributed $100 to the Rotary International Foundation and have committed to becoming Paul Harris Fellows.

Permian Basin Rehabilitation Center
     Coordinates the acquisition of a vehicle and promotes raffle ticket sales for the annual Great American Steakout each fall.  This fundraiser raises money not only for the Permian Basin Rehabilitation Center but also to support other Rotary projects.

Polio Plus
     Rotary's program of commitment to eradicating Polio by 2005.  Contributions to Paul Harris Fellowships go to this fund.

Presidential Museum
     Club project to promote construction and club association with new museum.

Public TV
     Club project to promote support of public TV during telethons.

READ Odessa
     Coordinates activities with the local literacy agency to promote Rotary's literacy initiative within our community.

Remembrance Day
     Held during the Valentine Day program, the committee invites, arranges for transportation, and provides very special recognition for widow/widowers of deceased Rotarians.

Rotaract
     Rotary club-sponsored clubs for young adults (ages 18-30) for the purpose of developing leaders and service-minded citizens.  The purpose of Rotaract is to provide an opportunity for young men and women to enhance the knowledge and skills that will assist them in personal development, to address the physical and social needs of their communities and to promote better relations between all people worldwide through a framework of friendship and service.

Rotary Room at Ector County Library
     A district project organized and sponsored by the three Odessa Rotary Clubs.

RYLA
     The Rotary Youth Leadership Award or RYLA is a five to six day leadership training camp which focuses on personal and professional development of high school students.  Rotary clubs within the district select high school juniors who will be in leadership positions in their senior year or have leadership potential.  The Odessa club sponsors both boys and girls to attend the summer camp.  The students visit the club shortly after they return from camp to tell the club members about the impact the camp had on them.

Salvation Army Bells
     Club members traditionally ring bells one Saturday before Christmas at one of the local kettle sites.

Service Above Self
     Encourages members to recognize exceptional customer service within the community in the name of Rotary.

Sow the Seeds of Love
       In January 2003, Rotary took part in a tree-planting project.  Throughout the course of this project, forty-nine fruitless Bradford Pear trees were planted. Each tree represents a speaker that the club had during their meetings for the 2002-2003 club year. The trees are located in the Memorial Garden Park (Buffalo Wallow) in Odessa, Texas-on the walking path just north of Westminster Presbyterian Church and leading to the main path at the park.  This path of trees lead up to the "Rotary rock" that holds a plaque stating "In keeping with Rotary International 2002-2003 Theme of 'Sow the Seeds of Love,' these trees have been planted by the Odessa Rotary Club in honor of all (forty-nine weekly club meeting) speakers."  The hands-on project provided a great opportunity for the Rotary family, as well as the city, to join together in an effort to beautify our community.  The city itself will have a hand in the continual growth of the trees as it has installed and will maintain a drip system along with continual care of the feeding of the trees.  For us personally, the project meant a great deal.  Not only will this project "grow" for years to come as a symbol of Rotary, but it was also one of the major projects that Troy Chesnut spear-headed during his term as president for the Odessa Rotary Club for 2002-2003.

Thanksgiving Baskets
     Law enforcement appreciation baskets filled with bakery items (preferably homemade) that are taken to local and state agencies for those who are working during the holiday.

Tsunami Relief
     The Odessa Rotary Club received a challenge from club member Dr. Jesse Cone in which $3,758.00 was raised for the tsunami relief.  The money was donated to Hunger Plus, Inc. to use in their efforts to help those recovering from the tsunami.

Youth Exchange
     Youth exchanges are commended as a worthwhile activity in the advancement of international understanding and goodwill throughout the world.  Youth Exchange provides thousands of young people with the opportunity to meet people from other lands and to experience their cultures. This plants the seeds for a lifetime of international understanding.