Stories

Rob Wythe and Sharon Scott, present and past Community Service Chairs of the McKinney Rotary Club, hold some of the 206 new stuffed animals that the Club donated to the non-profit Adam’s Animals.  Following the death of their 18 year old son Adam from leukemia, his parents have collected new stuffed animals to donate on Adam’s November birthday to various Dallas and Collin county hospitals for children on the oncology floor.  Since 1999 Adam’s Animals has donated over 88,000 new stuffed animals giving a smile and a giggle to ill children and a moment of relief for their parents.

Sharon Scott, Community Service Chair, McKinney Rotary Club, presents a $400 check to Aaron Doss, Stable Manager of Mane Gait—and to Sam, a beautiful palomino therapy horse!  Mane Gait was the June Charity of the Month.  Mane Gait provides weekly equine therapy to 150 adults (including first responders) and children with physical, emotional, cognitive, sensory and behavioral disabilities.  The McKinney Rotary Club ended the club year with $14,135 in donations from members for community service.

Zella Tyson, CEO of Meals on Wheels of Collin County, accepts $546 from Sharon Scott, Community Service Chair of the McKinney Rotary Club.  MOW was one of two May Charities of the Month.  The other donation was $200 to the McKinney Library Foundation.

Kerry Burleson was presented a Certificate of Appreciation by Community Service Chair Sharon Scott and Team Member Mike Bell on May 20 for his dedicated service to Rotary’s project with Meals on Wheels of Collin County.  Kerry has retired from being a Meals on Wheels delivery driver this month after delivering hot noon meals since March 2016. 

The McKinney Rotary Club donated $950 to World Vision Ukraine’s Crisis Relief Fund as the Charity of the Month for April.  World Vision staff are supporting refugees in Romania, where they aim to provide hundreds of thousands of people with essential aid, including emergency food assistance packages and educational and psychological support. They’re also working with partners to support refugees in Moldova and displaced families in Ukraine, and through their staff in Georgia, where thousands of visiting Ukrainians were stranded when the conflict began.

The McKinney Rotary Club has made significant donations to help refugees in Ukraine.  Community Service Chair Sharon Scott announced Save the Children’s Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund was the Charity of the Month of March with $6,100 donated.  Of that total, $2,500 was kindly contributed from the Love Life Foundation, $1,000 from Carrollton-Farmers Branch Rotary Club and $665 from Collin County Rotary Club.  In addition, President Mark Potter stated that the McKinney Rotary Club and the Club’s Foundation each donated $1,500 to the Rotary District Fund for humanitarian aid to Ukraine.  Total contributions:  $9,100.

Community Service Chair Sharon Scott presents $525 to Yvonne Booker, Operations Director of Shiloh Place, as the McKinney Rotary Club’s February Charity of the Month.  Shiloh Place provides basic needs, case management and college tuition for job training or career development with the goal of the low-income, single mothers becoming financially independent and personally whole by the end of the two-year program. Over 90% of Shiloh graduates have obtained safe housing in their names, increased their education and have stable income careers.

President Mark Potter and Community Service Chair Sharon Scott present a $7,000 District Matching Grant from the McKinney Rotary Club to Lori Stevens, Executive Director/Founder of Patriot PAWS Service Dogs.  Lori’s holding Elara, a 3 month old English cream golden retriever in training.  Also in photo are Lara Jackson, Grant Writer, along with two volunteers and Service Dog Boyd.  The mission of Patriot PAWS is to train and provide service dogs of the highest quality at no cost to disabled American veterans with mobile disabilities in order to help restore their physical and emotional independence.

Community Service Chair Sharon Scott and other members of the McKinney Rotary Club present Marianne Radley, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Collin County, a Charity of the Month check for $727 for their “Home for the Holidays” project.  Each club member’s family will receive a holiday meal kit, a Christmas present for every child in the home and a grocery gift card.

On behalf of the McKinney Rotary Club, Sharon Scott, Community Service Chair, presented Jeff and Gena Hurst with 194 new stuffed animals (value $1,640) for their Adam’s Animals Charity.  In memory of their 18 year old son Adam, who died of leukemia 26 days after diagnosis in 1999, they have taken new stuffed animals to various Collin and Dallas county hospital’s pediatric oncology wards.  Since inception over 80,000 children have been given a “smile and a giggle” from a soft, furry friend during a scary time in the hospital.

Sharon Scott, Community Service Chair, and Cathy Walner, Accountant, presented checks and personal care items totaling $675 to Myron Wilson, the Executive Director of DIRECTION61:3.  This was the McKinney Rotary Club’s September Charity which provides residential and other care to young adults who have aged out of the foster care system.

Adam‘s Animals began accidentally in 1999 when Mr. and Mrs. Hurst took a stuffed animal to the hospital where there 18 year old son Adam had died a few months prior from leukemia.  They went on his birthday to ease their sorrow and saw the light in a child’s eyes on the pediatric cancer ward upon receiving the gift.  Adam‘s Animals began and since that time, the Hursts have delivered over 80,000 new stuffed animals to various pediatric cancer wards of Collin and Dallas county hospitals.  The photo is of Adam with a stuffed animal that had been given to him that he kept with him for the 26 days he lived after the diagnosis.

The August 27 speaker was Maureen Patin, founder and lead trainer, from What a Great Dog! training facility.  Her locations in Frisco and Richardson are two of the largest training facilities in the U.S.  Maureen urged us to look at things from a dog’s viewpoint when they first come into our home.  We’re big, we don’t speak their language and we have lots of rules.  

Sharon Scott was honored with the “Star” Award at the District 5810 Awards Banquet for her efforts as Community Service Chair which led to $8,116 being donated by club members to local charities during the pandemic.  Shown with Past President Mike Bell and Harold McLeod.

On December 18, 2021 Wreaths Across America DFW will be at the DFW National Cemetery to Remember and Honor our veterans through the laying of remembrance wreaths on the graves of our country’s fallen heroes and the act of saying the name of each and every veteran aloud. A $15 donation will buy one wreath. Wreaths Across America locally is 13.5% to their goal, but have 40,150 wreaths to go.

 

Prescheduled Giving begins today!
September 9, 2019

 

You don’t have to wait until North Texas Giving Day to give back to the McKinney Rotary Foundation, preschedule your gift today! Scheduled giving will run from September 9^th- through North Texas Giving Day, September 19^th. Click here to give !!

Your support will help us serve and fund many organizations/charities in the local community.

Rotarians are making a difference all over the world and the McKinney Rotary Foundation is proud to be a leading program locally and globally.