Article Contributed on: 10/16/2008 2:30:45 PM
Father of Soldier Brings Denver Community Together to Pack School Supplies for Children in Iraq
Denver, CO, October 16, 2008 -- Today,
Kevin Farrell, a member of the
Rotary Club of Denver Southeast, one of the largest and oldest service organizations in the world, brought the Denver community together and packed over 150 boxes of school supplies for children between the ages of five and ten in Iraq.
In April 2008, Kevin Farrell's son was deployed in the Anbar Province of Iraq. He is the team leader with a PysOps company tasked with "winning the hearts and minds" of the local population.
After seeing and hearing about the deplorable conditions that Iraqi children faced,
Greg Farrell and his father made a proposal to the Rotary Club of Southeast Denver whose mission is "service above self" to support the effort to send school supplies to the children.
"The key to the success of the school supplies project is having a direct contact in Iraq to ensure that supplies are getting to the school children who need them most," said Kevin Farrell, Iraq Project Director at Rotary Club of Southeast Denver. "We couldn't have done this without the hard work that Greg and the Rotary put into this project. It's a great feeling to know that these supplies will further the education of children who have experienced a lot of trauma in their lives."
Approximately 25 Rotarians have participated in the program and organizations such as the DU Rotaract, CCHS Interact clubs and some of the Rotary's RYLArians also participated. One of the long-term strategies is to identify Iraqi leaders who might be interested in becoming a charter member of a new Rotary club in Iraq as a result of the Rotary's involvement in Iraq communities. The Denver Mile Hi Club is pursing that and has sponsored several Iraqi refugees here in Denver.
About Rotary International: Rotary is one of the largest and oldest service organizations in the world with approximately 1.2 million members who belong to over 33,000 clubs in approximately 170 nations. Rotary International celebrated its 100 anniversary in 2005. The Rotary Club of Denver Southeast is approximately 20 years old and has 115 members. Rotary is widely known for eradicating polio. During the past 18 years, Rotarians from around the globe have donated approximately $500 million dollars and hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours to immunize approximately 2 billion children with the polio vaccine. Rotary's international, polio eradication program is one of the largest non-government, health and humanitarian events in recorded history. As a result, polio only exists in four nations, whereas 18 years ago, polio existed in over 40 countries. Rotary is also known for creating the first global, Master's degree program in conflict resolution, hosting the largest international student and adult exchange scholarship program in the world, and for performing thousands of local community service projects, including financially supporting after-school programs and domestic violence shelters, constructing water wells, and countless other activities to build international and local goodwill.