Decatur Rotary moving ahead in awarding grants to local non-profits
Despite the economic-fallout of COVID-19 the Rotary Club of Decatur is still awarding $20,000 in grants to local non-profits in the Club’s continuous support of literacy and at- risk youth. Though the club’s annual fundraiser/auction was cancelled due to the pandemic, Decatur Rotary President Ash Gupta said it’s dipped into reserves to issue grants ranging from $1500 to $4000.
That money will go to the Decatur Education Foundation, Decatur Family YMCA, Decatur Housing Authority, DeKalb Library Foundations, Family Heritage Foundation, Friends of Refugees and the Project Transformation North Georgia.
Though Decatur-based, the Club considered 21 grant requests—which required submitting a specific project for the grant to cover—from all over DeKalb.
Gupta said that in late March the Decatur YMCA revised its request asking that instead of paying for its usual summer program, the Y would use grant funds for providing food to the children of medical workers. Subsequently the Rotary Club increased the Y’s grant payout from $1500 to $3,000.
The Rotary Club of Decatur is one of the city’s oldest continuous civic organizations, and the first metro Atlanta suburban Rotary Club, dating to 1938.
