Belleville Rotary Club celebrates Oct. 15 as night of grants, awards

On Oct. 15, the Rotary Club of Belleville provided financial grants to three worthy entities, recognized the contributions of current members, and installed a new member to the club.
“Friday Fill-up,” represented by Gabby Burton and Martha Hanoian, received a check for $500 to help provide children in food insecure households an extra boost of nutrition: a backpack with 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, and 3 snacks, plus an item to help the family stretch their food budget through the weekend. Friday Fill-up is headquartered at Trinity Episcopal. Those interested in helping in any way are encouraged to visit http://www.trinitybell.org/friday-fill-up.html.
The Belleville High School Robotics Club, represented by teacher and Robotics Club advisor Aaron Lang, received a grant for $1,000 to provide a new motor and parts for the robot the club is building for this year’s competition. The local Rotary has a history of investing in the futures of Belleville area students, annually providing scholarships to local students and donating dictionaries to third graders throughout the district. Those graduating students interested in applying for one of this year’s seven scholarships may obtain an application at https://www.bellevillerotary.org/ .
A third grant of $5,000 was given to Bill and Valerie McNeece of Haiti Outreach Missions which provides clean water filters to a community in Haiti. These filters are vital to the health of that community, reducing the incidence of community illnesses by up to 70%.
The grants were funded through the Charles B. Cozadd Rotary Foundation.
After these awards, Rotary District 6400 Governor John Chambers honored 34th District Court Judge David Parrott for reaching another milestone in his contributions to the Rotary Foundation and Joyce Rochowiak was given the “Doing the Right Thing” award in recognition of her service to the community and especially to Rotary in Belleville.
To top off the evening, the club installed its newest member Patti Monroe from Brown Funeral Home Services.