The West St. Paul-Mendota Heights Rotary Club will make contributions totalling nearly $3,000 to local and international charities during May following votes of approval by the Board of Directors at a May 1 meeting.

Donations were approved to the following programs:

• West St. Paul Arbor Day - $250
• River Falls Rotary Club - $500 for a project to build schools in Haiti
• Northern Star Boyscouts Council - $1,000
• Engineers without Borders - $1,200 for a water containment cistern in East Africa

Donations to local, national and international charities are made possible through support by the community -- including private individuals and local businesses -- to the Club's two fundraisers. Each spring, the Club sells Rotary Roses for delivery on Administrative Professionals Day. Each autumn, the Club hosts an glow-ball golf tournament  and silent auction.

Examples of some of the other charities and programs regularly supported by the Club include:

• Serving 10 meals per year through Loaves & Fishes at St. Matthew's on the West Side;
• Neighbors Inc. of South St. Paul, an emergency food shelf experiencing record-high demand;
• ALMAS, a Latino youth program at Henry Sibley High School;
• Friends of Dodd Road, in which the Club twice a year picks up trash;
• Guild Inc. shoes program to provide new shoes to homeless persons with mental illness and support of the emergency housing shelters in South St. Paul;
• Lamb's Fleece, a project to provide hand-made fleece blankets for orphanages in Eastern Europe.

Learn more about the WSP-MH Rotary Club at: http://www.clubrunner.ca/Portal/Home.aspx?accountid=8700