Helping scholars in need: Our club has awarded nearly $300,000 in college scholarships to 125 local high school students. We provide $1,000 a year for four years to each of three students each year. Because scholarships are essential to many students and their families, we have begun a special endowment campaign to expand our scholarship program in future years.

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Developing youth leadership: The Ridgewood A.M. Rotary Club sponsors three community service organizations for youth—Interact at Ridgewood High School (RHS) and React Clubs at Benjamin Franklin and George Washington Middle Schools. These clubs give students the opportunity to learn organization and leadership skills by helping charitable causes in our area and overseas. The RHS Interact Club has 360 energetic members who spearhead dozens of major community service projects a year.

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Better readers become better students: As part of Rotary International’s effort to support literacy, each fall members of our club personally deliver age-appropriate encyclopedic dictionaries to 800 third graders in Glen Rock, Ho-Ho-Kus and Ridgewood public and private schools. Research has shown that students who have their own dictionaries become better readers, leading to greater academic success.

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Helping the hungry and homeless: Years ago, we launched a perpetual food drive where members bring donations of food and cash to our weekly meetings. The donations are delivered to the Social Service Association of Ridgewood and Vicinity (SSA), which assists families in need in eight surrounding towns. This year, we’ve partnered with King’s in Midland Park to deliver the supermarket’s donations of fresh food each week to SSA. The club also supports Community Meals, which delivers hot meals each day to the homebound elderly, and Family Promise, a sheltering program for homes working families. We partner with local churches to prepare dinners, entertain children and help with homework.