Altrusa International Service Projects
A database of Service projects from throughout our Altrusa organization
The Empty Bowl Supper is an annual event that the Portland Altrusa Club has been holding for the benefit of Project FEED, a local emergency food pantry.
Guests choose a ceramic bowl to use for their meal and to keep as a reminder that there are always Empty Bowls in the world.
In exchange for a meal and the bowl, the Guest makes a $10.00 donation.
All proceeds raised will be donated to Project FEED which is an emergency food depot located in the basement of Woodfords Church.
Our club awards approximately $10,000 in scholarships each spring to local high school seniors enrolling in college, to returning Blue Mountain Community College students, and to students in career technical programs.
This project provides grants of up to $300 to teachers in the Pendleton school district for special projects or supplies that are not funded by the schools. ASK grants have supported field trips, the acquisition of books and computer programs, supplies for special projects, visiting authors, and much more. This project disburses approximately $8,000 each year.
In partnership with the Pendleton school district, the KARE project identifies the specific needs of homeless children in our community via surveys administered by school counselors 3 times a year. We provide school supplies, clothing, toiletries, blankets, tents, shoes, hygiene items, and other necessities. We also partner with other organizations, professionals and local businesses to provide these children with vision and dental exams, hair cuts, transportation vouchers, and other needs.
Every three weeks, all year-round, Altrusans promote literacy by selecting and delivering books for homebound people who are unable to travel to the library. Most clients are elderly; some living in facilities and others in their own homes. This is Nanaimo Altrusa’s largest and longest-running service project, begun in 1967. The service is greatly appreciated by our clients and requires a large number of Altrusan volunteers for book selection, drivers and carriers.
In October and March, Altrusans help improve the learning outcomes of hungry students at a local school by providing them with nourishing muffins. (It’s hard to concentrate when your stomach is empty.) Members provide their own ingredients, bake muffins at home and place them in freezer bags with ingredients listed on the outside. They are delivered on a specific date for storage in the school’s freezer. Friends and neighbours often help us. This is our traditional project for “Make A Difference
Day” (the 4th Saturday in October), which is an initiative to make life better for others.
Several times a year, we help women in crisis situations by making care bags. We collect discontinued fabric samples from local furniture stores, prep and sort the fabric and sew it into bags which can be reused. Essential toiletry items, bus passes, etc. are purchased and placed in the bags. About 100 are delivered to three local women’s shelters. To date, we’ve distributed about 5000 care kits.
Providing free workforce clothing to women applying for jobs or needing workforce clothing for their current jobs. Women visit our venue which looks like a clothing store and can seek assistance to find outfits that work for them. Most clothes are donated.