On April 11, Dan Fronczak from the West Shore Rotary Club will visit our club to discuss the West Shore club's proposed Rotary cluster project to benefit Youth Challenge (YC).
The West Shore club serves the communities of North Olmsted, Fairview Park and West Park. In addition to West Shore club and our club, our cluster includes the Sunrise club, Westlake-Bay, and North Ridgeville.
West Shore has been supporting YC, a non-profit organization that assists disabled students, for a number of years. Mary Sue (Anter) Tanis founded the organization in the summer of 1976 as a part-time, volunteer driven program under the auspices of the Fairview Park Recreation Department.
In 1989, expansion of services to Cleveland's East Side, southern suburbs, and Lorain County led to the present name of Youth Challenge. With Mary Sue still at the helm, YC services more than 600 families in the following counties: Cuyahoga, Lorain, Lake, Summit, Medina, Geauga and Stark.
Volunteers are at the heart of YC. Four hundred teenage volunteers from all over Northeast Ohio are trained to work with the participants. These teens (ages 12-18) performed over 11,000 hours of service at YC activities and programs last year. Along with the seasonal activities, teen and adult volunteers also donate their time toward office work, special events, and numerous other tasks.
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