Club members volunteer at Homes for Our Troops Project

Homes for Our Troops is a national non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2004 and committed to helping those who have selflessly given to our country and have returned home with serious disabilities and injuries since September 11, 2001. Homes for our Troops assists severely injured Servicemen and Servicewomen and their immediate families by raising donations of money, building materials and professional labor and coordinates the process of building a home that provides maximum freedom of movement and the ability to live more independently. The homes provided by Homes for Our Troops are given at no cost to these deserving veterans who have served our country at considerable loss to their own well being. Club members volunteered time and money for this project, and our Board of Directors obtained assistance from the other Rotary clubs in town as well. Click here for a July 12, 2010 thank-you letter from Homes for Our Troops. Click here for a July 12, 2010 thank-you letter from the Robert Canine family, which will reside in the home built here.

Our club members, along with volunteers from the other Columbia Rotary clubs and the Columbia Rotaract Club, donated funds to pay for the lunch on work day, June 24, 2010, and the luncheon on Key Ceremony Day, June 25, 2010. On June 24 5he volunteers set up and served other volunteers and helped to clean the house to make it ready for the next day. On June 25, Columbia's Rotary volunteers set up for the luncheon, barbecued and served over 150 guests, and volunteered to stay to clean up – all in 100-degree weather, with some working in the sun most of the time. With food left over, we delivered and donated it to Coyote Hill.

Our club members from Wal-Mart donated the lunch for work day. Wal-Mart also donated a large volume of the food for Saturday's luncheon. In addition, our member from Sam's Club also provided food, making it possible for us to give a donation in the amount of over $1,300.00 to Homes for Our Troops. Our donation was given in Staff Sergeant Canine's name for the fundraising he has done on his own toward another home for the next Missouri soldier who needs the ADA-approved facility.

The photographs below are from the events on June 24 and 25, 2010.