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Our club is becoming a partner in another water project in Ecuador! Following the completion of a municipal water system in the rural community of Santa Teresa, Manabi, Ecuador in 2020, the Rotary Club of Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador approached us again about their next project in the Rio Muchacho valley. Similar in intent, the project would provide, for the first time, reliable potable water to the homes and schools in the valley by creating a well, a treatment system, a distribution system, meters, and a local water board to govern and operate the system as a utility. The project would be funded by several Rotary partners and utilize a grant from The Rotary Foundation for expenses. We are hoping to raise $2,000 from the Spruce Grove community, which we can multiply several times over to become a major contributor to the US$90,000+ project. The Service Projects committee approved up to $2,000 of matching funding under the Projects of Passion plan. That means if we can meet our $2,000 fundraising goal before the end of May, we will end up contributing $4,000 cash to the project. We are in the process of gaining approval from Rotary District 5370 to match that with $4,000 of funding. Following that, we expect to receive a successful match of an additional $6,000 from The Rotary Foundation's world fund. That would be a total of $14,000 from $2,000 raised from the community! We should all be so lucky to get a 7:1 match on investments in a matter of a few weeks. Really, though, the worth of the investment is priceless: the health, wellbeing, and community of the Ecuadorian people in the Bahia de Caraquez region, one with which Spruce Grove has had a connection for over 15 years. If you're interested in making a tax-deductible donation to the project, please contact Brad Mastaler at 780-965-0258 or brad.mastaler@gmail.com or Neil Hollands at 780-690-8002 or nlholl@shaw.ca. If you know someone in the community who might be interested as well, please pass on this message and our contact info. Thanks, Brad and Neil |
