Rotary Club of Monterey Park has received a matching grant of $1,500 from Rotary District 5300 to establish a community garden at the back of the West San Gabriel Boys and Girls Club in Monterey Park. April 23rd from 8:00 A.M.-2:00 P.M. Rotarians and Mark Keppel Interacters will help the staff and members of the Boys and Girls Club prepare the land with a sprinkler system, install planters and plant the first vegetables. The children and youth members of the Boys and Girls Club picked the first vegetables to be grown – i.e. those vegetables needed to make salsa. Rotary Club of Monterey Park wants to use the garden to teach children the importance and uses of plant life and how fruits and vegetables are instrumental in a comprehensive health plan. Every child that goes inflatable water slide through the Gardening Program will learn how to utilize the land, and the accompanying produce that is grown, and foster a sense of self  empowerment and achievement for the young people. The community garden will help the Boys and Girls Club in their campaign to promote quality-eating habits. The goals of this program would be to teach youth and teens that gardening, though at times tedious and long range in terms of returns can be fun and extremely rewarding. Gardening captures a child’s interest and we hope to teach them nurturing skills, give them a sense of pride in their accomplishments, and introduce them to healthy foods.

In addition, during lunch on Saturday, April 23rd the Mark Keppel Interacters will be formally inducted as the newest Rotary District 5300 Interact Club. Interact is Rotary International’s service club for young people ages 12 to 18. Interact clubs are sponsored by individual Rotary clubs, which provide support and guidance, but they are self-governing and self-supporting. The first Interact Club met with 23 students at Melbourne High School in Melbourne, Florida in 1960. It has since become one of the most significant and fastest-growing programs of Rotary service with more than 12,300 clubs in 133 countries and geographical areas. Almost 290,000 young people are involved in Interact worldwide.

Rotary International is the oldest and largest service organization in the world. For information on serving your local community through the Monterey Park Rotary, check http://www.clubrunner.ca/CPrg/home/homeA.asp?cid=4711. Monterey Park Rotary usually meets every Thursday at 12:15 P.M. at Capital Seafood, 755 W. Garvey Avenue, Monterey Park. For more information on Rotary International and clubs in other communities see http://www.rotary.org/EN/ABOUTUS/Pages/ridefault.aspx.

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