Rick Patrick rick@greenepublishing.com
On Wednesday, May 4, the Madison Rotary Club met at 4-H Camp Cherry Lake rather than their regular meeting place, in Madison, to make a special presentation. The local service club made a donation of $2,000 to the camp to assist with their on-going renovation project. Many of the buildings used for the camp were built in the 1930s as part of the Works Project Administration (WPA). The WPA was a federal program to provide jobs as an attempt to bring the country out of the “Great Depression.” The WPA spanned a variety of professions, with many of the projects involving construction.
Time has taken its toll on many of the cabins and other buildings at the camp, highlighting the need for modernization for the sake of safety. According to Erin Mugge, 4-H Camping and Environmental Education Coordinator for the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), the camp renovation is a massive undertaking which will take approximately two to three years for completion. It is the goal to have the camp certified by the American Camping Association (ACA). ACA certification will allow the camp to be used by many more organizations, such as the Girl Scouts, which will only use camps certified by the ACA. A major component of the renovation will involve replacing the current cabins with more modern, climate-controlled facilities. Anyone interested in obtaining one of the old cabins is encouraged to contact Mugge at (352) 846-4444, or by email at erin.mugge@ufl.edu. For more information about local 4-H activities and programs, please contact Beth Moore by calling (850) 973-4138 or by email at elizabethmoore@ufl.edu.
The Rotary International Foundation is one of the country's most respected charities, earning a four-star rating, the highest rating, from Charity Navigator. A full 92 percent of the funds raised by the Foundation are spent on program awards and operations. The Rotary International Foundation supports service projects across the globe, such as polio eradication, clean water projects, educational programs, and more. For more information, or to make a donation, please visit www.rotary.org/en/donate.
The Madison Rotary Club meets each Wednesday, at 12 p.m., at the Villa Maria Social Hall of the St. Vincent DePaul Catholic Church, located on Orange Ave., across from Beggs Funeral Home, in Madison. Taking the Rotary motto, “service above self” to heart, the local Rotarians have supported many local service projects, ranging from providing books to local elementary schools to area disaster relief, and more.