Causes We Support

Vision House

 
Hartford Rotary Club partners with Hartford Union High School to provide a hands on building experience for students. In an academic year, the students design a home, help construct, work alongside skilled trades people to build a single family home in Hartford. Students are also involved in the design of interior finishes, landscape design, as well as the business aspects of marketing a home. Our Hartford Rotary Club Foundation provides the financing to purchase a lot as well as secures and services the construction loan for the project. When the house is finished and sold, 100% of the proceeds are used to purchase the lot for the next Vision House Project.
 

PolioPlus

 
We are partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to provide medicare and aid to those in need.
 
Worldwide we have donated over 1 Billion dollars to providing education, immunizations, and healthcare to wipe out this deadly disease. 
 
PolioPlus is a far reaching organization, dedicated to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Rotary is a leader in the private sector, seeking to rid the world of Polio. This crippling disease has plagued humanity for over 30 years. PolioPlus is setting a standard worldwide as the strongest model of public-private cooperation as we pursue a humanitarian goal.

International Youth Exchange

 
Each year, Hartford Rotary Club sponsors an incoming international exchange student through Rotary International’s Youth Exchange Program. A foreign high school student comes to Hartford at the end of August, lives with 2-3 local host families and attends HUHS for a year. Our club arranges and interviews the host families, provides a monthly allowance as well as social support for the exchange student. Additionally, we have an outgoing exchange program. Hartford Rotary Club recruits, interviews and sponsors area high school students to participate in this program so that they can spend a year in a foreign country as a Rotary Exchange Student.
 

Hartford Rotary Park

 
Our club tends to a beautiful city park on the corner of Grand Ave. and Sumner St. The unique octagonal gazebo that sits on the bank above the Hartford Mill Pond was, designed by a Hartford Rotary member and constructed by a crew of fellow Rotarians. The concept was to mirror the design of Hartford’s Historic Chandelier Ballroom, including a roof topped by an octagonal, lighted cupola. Our club maintains the gazebo, signs and its gardens and has added enhancements including a water catchment system, native prairie garden and environmental interpretive signs.
 
 
HUHS Scholarships
Hartford Rotary Club has two scholarship programs that benefit graduating Hartford Union High School students. We have an endowed $1000 scholarship that is awarded by the HUHS Scholarship Foundation. Our club also has its own scholarship committee that annually awards additional $1000 scholarships to three HUHS students.
 
Teachers of the Year
Each year Hartford Rotary Club honors area teachers that have distinguished themselves in their educational endeavors. We host 3 teachers and their guests at a Rotary luncheon with a celebration of their accomplishments and awards.
 
Santa Sponsorship
This is a cooperative effort with the Hartford Chamber of Commerce to provide a wonderful traditional holiday experience with Santa Claus in downtown Hartford. Our club provides volunteers when Santa comes to town to greet and organize the children that want to visit with him as well as arranges photos with Santa.
 
 
Early Literacy Project
This Hartford Rotary Project was started to educate the community about the scholastic and cognitive rewards of reading to young children. Our club secures funding, orders books and delivers these to two partner medical clinics in Hartford, Aurora Health Center and Froedtert Hartford Health Center. At each pediatric wellness exam, an age appropriate book is provided to the child at no charge and their caregivers are given information on the importance of reading to children at a young age.