DON'T JUST JOIN THE CONVERSATION...
BE PART OF THE SOLUTION.
THE ROTARY CLUB OF BUFFALO is where neighbors, friends, and problem-solvers share ideas, join leaders, and take action to create lasting change. Solving real problems takes real effort, commitment, and vision.
- Discuss our community's needs and discover creative ways to meet them
- Expand your leadership and professional skills
- Catch up with good friends and meet new ones
- Connect with leaders from all continents, cultures, and occupations
• Completed in 1991, the downtown Rotary Rink is named for the Rotary Club of Buffalo, which made a $500,000 commitment to the project. In 2010 the club gave $3,000 for 60 pairs of brand-new skates.
• The 100-foot tall Rotary Flagpole, flying a 60-foot flag at the Buffalo & Erie County Naval & Military Park, was dedicated in 2011 on Flag Day thanks to the Rotary Club of Buffalo’s $9,000 grant. The restored, 7-ton anchor from the USS Little Rock was installed in 2015 with help from a second grant of $9,508.
• 28 years: the club’s mentoring at Lorraine Elementary is the longest program of its kind in the City of Buffalo.
• One in every three residents of the City of Buffalo is functionally illiterate. Children unable to read and write cannot succeed in school. As adults they cannot find and keep jobs to sustain their families. The Rotary Club of Buffalo’s $60,000 grant to Read to Succeed helped it distribute 6,000 free books to the city’s most at-risk children annually.
• The $116,675 Rotary Reads Kids Club 2018 grant will provide new life to the children’s areas in City of Buffalo public libraries, promoting lifelong reading and learning; spaces to read, discover, and explore.
• According to the 2014 Census Bureau report, Buffalo has the fourth highest poverty rate in the country. Nationwide, between 41% to 44% of adults with the lowest literacy skills live in poverty. The club’s $3,600 grant to Big Brothers, Big Sisters helped to purchase BAK tablets for students in their afterschool programs.
• Buffalo is the 4th poorest city in the U.S. (2014 Census data); 61% of low-income homes have no books. Rotary Club of Buffalo’s $4050 grant funded Reach Out and Read’s partnership with Allentown Pediatrics, allowing the practice’s pediatricians to “prescribe” books for their young patients for a full year.
• Afterschool programs have been shown to have a positive impact for at-risk children. Providing access to the arts, and a safe place to create, helps children and young people to believe in their own future. Rotary Club of Buffalo’s $7,500 grant to Young Audiences of WNY helped it to purchase 20 iPad Mini 3s for its afterschool programs.
Today, 60% of America’s jobs require technical skills; access to computers for Buffalo’s students helps to level the playing field in information technology. Rotary Club of Buffalo’s $5000 grant to Computers for Children helped them purchase a 3-D printer and iPad docking station for afterschool digital literacy training.
• Providing access to the arts, and a safe place to create, helps children and young people to believe in their own future. Locust Street Neighborhood Art has provided free classes in the visual arts since 1959 and Rotary Club of Buffalo’s $6,000 grant will help Locust Street Art continue to make a difference in the East Side Fruit Belt neighborhood.