C-K Rotary Auction: Participate In Putting “Service Above Self”

Submitted by Alan MacDonald | Oct 11, 2023

If you pass through the quiet village of Sydenham, you might feel as if you have travelled back in time with its tree lined streets and historic buildings. Until, that is, you pass Loughborough Public School’s space-age, geodesic dome greenhouse. If you were to tour the school, you would also find a brand-new teaching kitchen, where students from kindergarten to Grade 8 learn how to cook, often with food they have grown in their greenhouse.

If you walked through the schoolyard, you would find trees of different ages that have been planted over the years to ensure that future children have shaded areas in which to play and learn. You would find a circle of huge limestones painted with the colours of the four directions according to many Indigenous cultures. You might see one of many classes boarding a bus to Frontenac Park where young students experience a “Classroom Without Walls” and meet experts in geology, nature, art and local indigenous knowledge keepers.

Or, you might wander up Stage Coach Road to the Grace Community food garden, where Loughborough’s Challenge North students and community adults have been tending a garden that supports the foodbank, Meals on Wheels, and local seniors, and where a small grove of new fruit trees hold the promise of future harvests.

What connects these structures and experiences for children? They were all supported to some by the Cataraqui-Kingston Rotary Club. Certainly, major projects like the greenhouse and kitchen were blessed by the generosity of several community supporters, but C-K Rotary was there in large part for all of them.

If you were to travel into Kingston, you might find C-K Rotarians supporting Pathways, an organization that helps students at risk of not completing high school to earn their diplomas. You might also catch a glimpse of them making food box deliveries for Lion Hearts. You might also stop by the Kingston Community House for Self-Reliance to check out their new and beautiful accessible outdoor meeting place supported by a C-K Rotary Community Service grant. Or, perhaps you might hear music coming from the children enrolled in Sistema Kingston, who were fortunate to spend a day with the National Youth Orchestra thanks also to a C-K Rotary grant. Most folks will not see the new outdoor play structure for Kingston Interval House’s Robin's Hope Second Stage Housing Facility, which was funded by a C-K Rotary grant to provide a safe place for mothers and children. You can almost always find the club meeting each Tuesday morning when the Cataraqui-Kingston Rotary Club meets to plan ways to positively affect change locally, nationally and internationally. Their organization is non-religious, non-political and members hold themselves to their motto, “Service above self”.

One can draw a direct line from the success of the annual Cataraqui-Kingston Rotary Club Auction to the club’s ability to do good. Businesses and community members who choose to participate through donations of auction items and sponsorships have a direct impact on the well-being of our community, along with community members who “Bid to Give,” knowing that every auction dollar raised goes directly into one of their humanitarian projects. Everyone is invited to visit the auction website at ckrotaryauction.org, where they can bid on some very attractive and useful items!

The auction is open for bids now until November 19th! Won’t you become a supporter of C-K Rotary’s humanitarian projects? BID to GIVE and take pride in being a part of this community initiative contributing positive change in your community and around the world.