WHAT WE DO
Giving starts with us
Members take on hands-on projects and support local and international programmes every year. “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
Garfield Park Youth House
A $10,000 lead gift from the South Pasadena Rotary Foundation started it. The community gave over $85,000, the City added $50,000, and club members supplied the labour. The rebuilt house now hosts Scout groups and City workshops.
Emergency response
CERT training for local residents so neighbourhoods can respond in the first hours after an earthquake or fire — before anyone else arrives.
The Senior Center
The annual Valentine luncheon at the South Pasadena Senior Center — one afternoon a year that a lot of people count on.
Work you can walk to
View all →We also turn up for
Four scholarships, every spring
View all →Two recipients from South Pasadena High School, two from Wilson High School in El Sereno.
Susan Foster Award
For community involvement.
Wagner Family Award
For community and school service.
Wagner Family Fine Arts Scholarship
For the fine arts.
Programs for Students
Interact Club
South Pasadena High School students running their own service projects.
RYLA
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards — an annual leadership camp for high schoolers.
Hensel Ethics Essay
An annual essay contest for local high school students.
Dan Stover Music
The district-wide music competition for young performers.
Where else this club shows up
View all →End Polio Now
Rotary and its partners have reduced polio cases by 99% worldwide since the first vaccination project in the Philippines in 1979.
+ endpolio.orgCorazón · Tecate
Club members travel to Tecate, Mexico each year to build houses for eligible families.
Wheelchairs · Puerto Vallarta
280 wheelchairs delivered by hand to people with disabilities.
Flying Samaritans
Support for volunteer pilots and doctors flying to Northern Baja to staff a medical clinic.
Water & sanitation
Wells and sanitation systems in Haiti and Tanzania. Stoves for heat and cooking in Guatemala.
Medical missions
A surgical operating table donated to a low-income hospital in New Delhi. Mending Kids pediatric surgical missions to Costa Rica, Guatemala and Peru.
Community Grants
Every grant the club makes is funded by Taste of South Pasadena. Nonprofits serving this region are encouraged to apply.
Past recipients: Union Station Homeless Services · Door of Hope · East Meets West Parent Education Association · The Giving Space · Hathaway-Sycamores · Ronald McDonald House Pasadena · Mending Kids International.
In April 2020, two weeks into the pandemic, the club awarded $14,000 to all fourteen local restaurants that applied — TeaMorrow, Shiro, Berry Opera, Heirloom, 2 Kids Coffee, Cos and Pi, Lost Parrot Cafe, Golden China, KJ Korean Tofu & BBQ, Señor Fish, Griffins of Kinsale, Cookies & Creme, Communal and Mike & Anne's.
Rotary's seven areas of focus
End Polio Now
Rotary and its partners have reduced polio cases by 99% worldwide since the first vaccination project in the Philippines in 1979.
+ endpolio.orgCorazón · Tecate
Club members travel to Tecate, Mexico each year to build houses for eligible families.
Wheelchairs · Puerto Vallarta
280 wheelchairs delivered by hand to people with disabilities.
Flying Samaritans
Support for volunteer pilots and doctors flying to Northern Baja to staff a medical clinic.
Water & sanitation
Wells and sanitation systems in Haiti and Tanzania. Stoves for heat and cooking in Guatemala.
Medical missions
A surgical operating table donated to a low-income hospital in New Delhi. Mending Kids pediatric surgical missions to Costa Rica, Guatemala and Peru.