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Club Projects
International Service
Guatemala
Although we are a very young club, we are highly engaged in all different avenues of service. For the past few years, members of our club have traveled to Guatemala with the Fargo-Moorhead AM Rotary Club to assist in the construction of a schools in many different villages. Our intent is to participate in a hands on international project every year to fulfill our Rotary mandate of one international project every year.
Hurricane Katrina Relief Fundraiser
In September 2005, our club hosted a fundraiser at the Outpost Bar on Lakehead University's campus. It had a Mardi Gras theme and was a huge success. We handed out beads, masks and hats and had competitions for best Mardi Gras costume and most beads collected. We filled the Outpost and raised $2610.00 (USD), including a $510.00 donation from the Virginia Rotary Club (we sent out a challenge to clubs in our district to donate money to go along with what we raised) that was sent to assist the victims of Hurrricane Katrina.

 
Community Service 
Dew Drop Inn
Every year at Christmas, we collect shoe boxes and purchase hygiene products, socks, mitts and other items to fill the shoe boxes. We then take one afternoon and wrap all of the boxes with Christmas wrapping paper. On the Thursday before Christmas, we bring the gifts to the Dew Drop Inn, which is a soup kitchen, and help the Port Arthur Rotary club serve the meal and hand out a gift to everyone that comes. This is one of our most rewarding projects that we do and everyone always looks forward to it each year.
Highway Cleanup
Each spring, some of our members come out to help the Port Arthur Rotary Club clean up their 2km stretch of highway for the adopt-a-highway program. Many interesting and sometimes unsettling items are unearthed but the search is always on the for person lucky enough to find that $20 bill laying in the ditch.
Relay for Life
Every June, we participate in the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life event held at the Fort William Historical Park. Leading up to the event, we put together a team of Rotaractors and collect pledges. Then we come up with a theme for our team and on the day of the event, set up tents and chairs and decorate our area and then spend the night walking laps to remember those affected by cancer and to celebrate those that have beat it as well as the lives that have been lost to the horrible disease. One such theme that we had was "All I want for Christmas is a cure!". When not walking laps, we have fun hanging out in our area and taking part in the festivities of the evening.
Rotaract Leadership Camp (RLC)
Beginning in the summer of 2004, we began to hold our own leadership camp for teenagers between the ages of 13-15. The camp was designed to assist teenagers in this age group adapt to life in high school. The transition from elementary to high school can be very tough and many get lost in the shuffle. We want to assist in helping them discover their strengths and abilities. It is a 6 day, 5 night camp that is held at Confederation College. All staff and campers sleep and eat all meals at the college. The campers take part in a series of speakers and activities that are geared to hone their leadership skills. Our task is not to make them all leaders, but rather to help the campers to find the leader within themself and to show them how to best use the skills that they have. More information can be found by clicking here or the 'leadership camp' link on our site...
Around Town
As we are a service organization with a large focus on our community, we often get asked by groups to assist with the running of their events. In the past we have participated in such events as The Baseball Canada Cup, Benny Birch's Birthday, Dragon Boat Festival, Lobsterfest, and many, many more. If you wish to contact our club about us assisting with your group's upcoming event, email us at tbayrotaract@gmail.com.
Common "Cents"
We not only help out Rotary causes, we also like to extend the olive branch and help out other groups in town.  We started this project as a way to collect funds for Harbour Youth Services after school programs. Their programs target children that need a little extra help or attention. It is a very simple idea. We decorated a couple buckets and pass them from business to business asking them and their customers to donate any spare change they might have. Once full, we take it back, count the money and hand it directly over to HYS for their programs. It is a project that never has to stop, it can continue all year round.


Fundraisers
Vanderwee's Greenhouse Christmas Party
In November of every year, we host a Christmas party for Rotarians which doubles as both a fundraiser and social event for all. Joe Vanderwees graciously donates his greenhouse which is totally decked out for the Christmas season. It provides a great venue for people to sit and enjoy the entertainment that plays festive tunes while enjoying a meal that we serve or sipping a few drinks from our cash bar. If they decide to, they are free to walk around and check out the enormous display of Christmas trees, decorations and can even purchase items from Joe's business. It's a win-win situation for everyone involved. This project largely pays for our travel expenses to the District Conference.
Sandbags
By far our largest and most profitable fundraiser, our annual sandbag project has sarcastically earned the term "monumental" and members are encouraged to "be a part of history". Essentially the sandbag project involves a lot of bullwork from everyone but it has a huge pay off. We usually fill the sandbags (by hand with shovels) in October to avoid the deep freeze that November usually brings with it. We fill on average, 1600 sandbags which sell for $5.00 a piece. Then we take two weekends at the end of November or the beginning of December and have a selling blitz. We have been fortunate enough to have sold out the past two years. Surprisingly enough, we all look forward to this project and make the filling day a lot of fun with friends, food and music. We partner with the 16th Fort William Boy Scouts and split the profits 50/50.
On The Smaller Scale
We also try to have smaller events such as spaghetti dinners and partner up with Rotary Clubs with their fundraisers to raise money which help offset club expenses as well as pay for members to travel to Guatemala or District Conference.

Club Events
Club Socials
Sometimes we need to unwind and kick back too. So every couple of months, we try to have a social event to keep the morale of our members up. We usually try to plan one just before or just after school starts, during the Christms break and during the summer. Past events have included camp parties on Lake Superior, Murder Mystery parties and most recently, the St. Patty's Day Bar Tour of the Bay Pub Crawl. We also like to have a 'Year End BBQ' to wrap up our past Rotaract year and to talk about what we would like to do in the upcoming year.
District Conference
Another event that our members always look forward to is District Conference. It is a weekend conference held for all Rotarians, Rotaractors and Interactors. Our district spans Northwestern Ontario, the northern half of Minnesota, the edge of Wisconsin, and the entire state of North Dakota and the conference venue rotates from city to city throughout the district. The day is filled with sessions and speakers which teach you all about the reach that Rotary has all over the world and is a great way to meet and make contacts with different members of Rotary in our district. On top of great speakers and learning about project ideas, there is a gala dinner and hospitality rooms in the evenings. The conference is held at the end of April and is something to always look forward to.