Speakers

We are capturing your questions before May 2, so our speaker can bring answers! 

Mehgen MacDougall, a Master Gardener will speak and help us with spring planting.

1. Submit your questions to CRSunriseRotary@gmail.com 

2. Come, listen, learn!  And plan on the May 10-11 plant sale! 

https://www.extension.iastate.edu/linn/master-gardener-program

3. Then get your plants here!  Details to follow on the website above.

2024 Spring Plant Sale  May 10 - 11, 2024
Lowe Park Arts & Environment Center, Marion

Members asked for a program on "Downsizing."   Several agreed that Christine Smart of "Designing Moves" will help us learn.

Their website:   https://www.designingmoves.net/

Hello, my name is Christine Smart, and I started business plans for Designing Moves LLC® in the Fall of 2008. I have lived in the Cedar Rapids/Marion area for over 25 years. I received an associate degree from Kirkwood Community College in Interior Design and Business. I have free-lanced and worked at design oriented furniture stores in Cedar Rapids. I enjoy volunteering to help other women grow. I trained with Barbara Morris in February 2009. Barbara founded Smooth Transitions®. She is also co-founder of NASMM. Our team is a member of the Cedar Rapids Elderly Consortium and P.E.O.

Launching Designing Moves LLC® has given me a sense of living my life on purpose and making a difference in other peoples lives. We are all here for a reason and as I look back over my life, many experiences I have encountered since I was a child have prepared me for Designing Moves LLC®!

Join us "on the Farm"!   We will meet at the Matthew 25 Cultivate Hope Urban Farm, learning what's happening there, and in the Matthew 25 food program.  Matthew Arndt is teh Farm Leader hosting us. 

A light breakfast there - coffee and (tbd) - will get us started. 

Learn more here https://www.matthew-25.org/food/urban-farm/

Where? 437 G Ave NW, Cedar Rapids
https://maps.app.goo.gl/E9qtnQipFCQ4g8Ph9

https://familieshelpingfamiliesofiowa.org/events/scramble-fore-children/

2024 “Scramble Fore Children”

Golf Fundraiser

The Cedar Rapids Sunrise Rotary Club is once again in the planning stages for this annual golf outing.  The outing is slated for May 23, 2024 at Hunters Ridge Golf Course in Marion.

We are once again partnering with Families Helping Families of Iowa, Inc., a local non-profit organization designated to support foster care in Iowa. https://familieshelpingfamiliesofiowa.org/ 

Families Helping Families (FHF) is a unique nonprofit organization located in Cedar Rapids that serves all of Iowa’s Children in Foster Care or adopted from foster care.  There are about 10,000 children in the state of Iowa living in foster care.

Children enter the foster care system abruptly and without chances to collect any of their belongings and may not return home for days, weeks, months or ever again.  The trauma of living in an unsafe home, coupled with the removal from their home adds layers of hurt in these young lives.  Each year, FHF serves over 3,000 children across the state.

FHF aims to help provide some of the most basic needs, along with programs intended to help kids gain confidence, education and memories that are positive throughout their journey. FHF does this by offering programs like our free Clothing Closet, Shoe Voucher Program, Haircut Voucher Program and Senior Picture Program.

When a child enters a foster home, often with no clothing than the clothes on their back, these programs aim to help meet the most basic needs.  FHF also has other programs such Spread Your Wings, Soaring Towards Success and Senior Celebration that are geared to help build confidence, social skills, relationships, and educational success. These kids deserve to have the best possible outcomes for their future, despite being in a situation that is not their fault.

The FHF goal is to help them thrive in spite of the challenges they face.  All money raised to support FHF is through grant awards, corporate sponsorships, or individual donors!  FHF could not do the work they do in our community without the support of local community members investing in the lives of foster youth!

Also, a portion of the proceeds will also help support the Cedar Rapids Sunrise Rotary local grant programs. In 2024, Sunrise Rotary plans to award a local grant to a non-profit service organization, made possible by our fundraising and Rotary Foundation matching funds.

Join us by sponsoring or by playing a round!