By Kyle LoJacono
The eight Rotary clubs of central and east Pasco County will donate at least 400 baskets of food to needy children for the summer break from school.
The clubs, which are collectively called the Eastside 8, also donated 400 food baskets during the winter break so families could have a special holiday dinner.
“It really comes down to need,” said Randy Gailit, Rotary Club of Land O’ Lakes president. “After the Christmas food baskets, we learned that we were looking at only the tip of the iceberg. A lot more people are in need than we thought and we got a lot of special thank-you cards, so we wanted to be part of it again.
“We started discussing having another food drive right after the holiday one, so it’s been in the works for four or five months now,” Gailit added.
The Eastside 8 include the Rotary Club of Land O’ Lakes, the Rotary Club of San Antonio and the two rotary clubs in Wesley Chapel, Zephyrhills and Dade City. The baskets will be put together at 9 a.m. June 5 at Shepard Park, located at the intersection of US 301 at A Avenue in Zephyrhills.
“The whole point is to get the clubs together for community support,” said George Vlk, Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel president. “The clubs always are doing charitable things in the community, but we wanted to join forces.”
The food goes to children in public schools who usually get free or reduced priced lunches, which includes more than 50 percent of the students in Pasco. The clubs are still looking for donations to fill more food baskets. The food stays within each of the five communities. To donate to any of the area clubs see the box below.
“There’s so much that needs to be done in our communities,” said Mike Wooten, assistant governor of Rotarian area 8 and member of the Zephyrhills daybreak club. “The motto of Rotary is ‘service above self,’ so the clubs do a lot of service in the area.”
Area 8 includes the two clubs in Zephyrhills and Dade City and Wooten, who lives in Wesley Chapel, acts as an assistant to the organizations.
The schools decide who is in most need of the donations so the families can stay anonymous. The food will be dropped off at the various schools June 7 and 8 and then given to the families later that week.
The winter food drive was designed to give the families one large meal, but the summer edition will include food children can make for themselves for two weeks. Each will include items like peanut butter and jelly, various canned foods and crackers.
In Land O’ Lakes, the baskets will go to Sanders Memorial and Lake Myrtle Elementary schools and Charles S. Rushe and Pine View middle schools.
“We wanted to keep it with the younger kids because we thought they would be in a more helpless situation at home,” Gailit said. “Those are the kids who will benefit the most from easy-to-prepare foods.”
Vlk said the Wesley Chapel club would be giving to the town’s elementary schools, which include New River, Double Branch, Quail Hollow, Sand Pine, Seven Oaks, Veterans, Watergrass and Wesley Chapel.
Rotary began in 1905 and currently has about 1.2 million members. Several of those in leadership positions in the Eastside 8 clubs received similar help growing up.
Wooten said his father died when he was 12 and his junior high school allowed him to do small chores in the cafeteria in exchange for lunch each day.
“They knew I needed it and I got to work for it.” Wooten said. “It wasn’t until when I was an adult that I realized how much that helped me.”
Gailit said he grew up with government assistance.
“I got similar help, so I’m familiar with how much it helps needy families,” Gailit said. “Children have no control over their family situation and many really need some help. Most people don’t realize that plight and we could use more donations to help more families.”
The Eastside 8 have no current plans to do any more combined events except for the holiday food drive later this year, but Wooten expects that to change.
“As of the beginning of July the eight clubs will have new presidents and I think they will continue the food drives for sure,” Wooten said. “I see us doing more collaboration. Together we can make a bigger footprint than we can alone.”
How to help the Eastside 8 food drive
— Rotary Club of Land O’ Lakes, (813) 918-3027,
— Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Sunrise, (813) 907-7990, www.wesleychapelrotary.com
— Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel, www.rotaryclubofwesleychapel.com
— Rotary Club of Zephyrhills Daybreak, www.zephyrhillsrotary.org
— Noon Rotary Club of Zephyrhills P.O. Box 1234 Zephyrhills, FL 33539,
— Rotary Club of Dade City Sunrise, (352) 797-0638, www.dadecitysunriserotary.org
— The Rotary Club of Dade City, dadecity-rotary-club.org
