Who They Are
The Waukee Rotary Club was chartered in May 1999 with 26 members. According to Drew Strube, president elect of Waukee Rotary, the club now has close to 70 members.
Many of its members are under the age of 40. “We are lively and thoroughly enjoy the fellowship with each other,” said Strube.
What They Do
The focus of the Waukee Rotary Club is to give back to the local community and to donate time and money to regional and international projects, as well.
Its current endeavors include:
- Partnering with other metro Rotary clubs and the Iowa Wolves organization to raise funds for the Rotary Foundation’s international campaign, Polio Plus. The Rotary Foundation has partnered with the Gates Foundation to work to eradicate polio worldwide.
- Working with Waukee Christian Services during the holidays to adopt a number of local underprivileged children and provide gifts, as well as donating to Operation Warm to purchase winter clothes for children in the school district who could not otherwise afford them.
- Organizing the first annual Bar-B-Kee Bash, scheduled for Sept. 15 of this year. The club will put on a barbecue competition and concert to raise funds for their service projects. A portion of the proceeds will also go towards Major’s Army, a team of family and friends raising money for a local child living with cystic fibrosis.
- Sponsoring inbound and outbound exchange students each year.
- Taking on various environmental projects, such as sponsoring the new trail head on the Raccoon River bike trail, roadside clean-ups on a section of Ashworth Road, and planting a tree for every member of the club.
What’s Coming Up
The Waukee Rotary Club sponsors the student art exhibit at the Waukee Arts Festival, which will be held this year on July 13-14. The exhibit provides students with space to display (and in some cases, sell) their artwork to the public. This year’s exhibit will be especially exciting, as it will be the first year that the Waukee Area Arts Council will fund and present scholarships to two Waukee High School students to help further their education in the arts.
According to Cody Kilgore, President of the Arts Council, the organization began discussing the possibility of offering scholarships a couple years ago. The plan is to offer the scholarships on an annual basis going forward. The students who applied for the scholarships underwent an application process that included a submitted essay and an in-person interview and portfolio review with the board of the Arts Council.
Kilgore commented that there were five candidates this inaugural year, and selecting who would receive the two scholarships was extremely difficult.
Had we the resources, we wish we could have awarded everyone we interviewed,” he said. “They are all tremendously talented and wonderful individuals. They have bright futures ahead of them.
Be sure to stop by the Waukee Arts Festival this July to check out the artwork at the student exhibit. As always, there will also be food vendors, kids’ entertainment, and live music—including a Friday evening concert by The Nadas. It’s sure to be a great time!