Racine Rotary West, the Downtown Racine Rotary and the Rotary Founders of Racine are proud to carry on the Rotary motto, "service above self." Each club has a number of individual projects to serve Racine. The three clubs also come together to support larger projects, the most notable being the annual Post Prom Party for Racine area high schools, an event featured on National Public Radio and declared the World's Best Prom.

Racine Rotary West was founded on April 18, 1968. In 1976 we created The Rotary West Foundation to administer the collection and distribution of proceeds from our fund raising efforts. The Foundation is not affiliated with the Rotary International Foundation. Rotary International funds global projects such as Polio Plus, a campaign to eradicate polio worldwide. Our Foundation is proud to have contributed $9,000 to that effort.

Rotary West has sponsored numerous events, including a Bluegrass Festival and a Grand Prix Go-Kart Race, to raise funds to distribute to worthy local projects, The Go-Kart Race was held for five consecutive years (1996-2000). These events and other fund¬raising efforts by Rotary West provide the Foundation with the financial resources needed to support many worthy local projects, including:

• Purchase of the Family Resource Center building
• Funding for the Racine Zoo's Safari Base Camp Pavilion
• Funding for the Rotary West Reader's Program for Racine's Public Library
• Purchase of three vans for the local chapter of the American Red Cross
• Funding for the Haban Park  oncession building.Smaller projects supported by the Foundation, include the Women's Resource Center, R.S.V.P, Love & Charity Mission, $1,000 "Strive Scholarships" for local high school students, Cops n' Kids, the Kid's Connection Playground and the North Beach Playground.

Since 1994, the Foundation has contributed in excess of $300,000 in support of more than 60 projects in the greater Racine community.

Since 2004, rotary West has sponsored the Great Midwest Dragon Boat Festival. Proceeds from this event allow the Foundation to continue its support of worthy projects in the greater Racine community.