Dajabon Visit

Local Rotary Clubs Welcome Rotary Partners from Dominican Republic

 
Has Rotary hit a homer? In Snohomish County and Latin America, Sure feels that way.
 
After eight years teaming together on multiple humanitarian projects, Snohomish County Rotarians are welcoming Rotary club members from the community of Dajabon in the Dominican Republic for fellowship and sightseeing around Puget Sound.
 
And baseball – both Seattle Mariners and Everett Aquasox – is part of the story.
 
Eight Dajabon Rotarians will spend a week exploring such attractions as Seattle’s Pike Place Market, the Space Needle and the Boeing Future of Flight exhibit. They’ll watch a Mariners game and visit local Rotary clubs. A welcoming dinner, open to the public, will be held September 14 at the Indigo Hotel on Everett’s waterfront.
 
The powerful baseball connection includes record-setting Mariners star Julio Rodriguez, who grew up in Dajabon and played for the Everett AquaSox before joining the Mariners. His father, Julio Rodriguez Sr., is one of the supporters Rotary works with in Dajabon.
 
    Since June 2015, Rotary organizations in the Northwest have worked with Rotarians and other partners in Dajabon to support multiple important service projects:
    • Greenhouse Garden Project. This initiative provides subsidized loans so farmers can build enclosed shade gardens and grow vegetables for local sale. The project includes training in agricultural production, organic gardening, business development and money management. Sixteen gardens have been built throughout the Dajabon Province. The project is funded with $106,865 in grants from Rotary clubs in Everett, South Everett/Mukilteo, Lake Stevens, Everett Port Gardner, Rotary District 5050, The Rotary Foundation, the Rotary Club of Dajabon and Rotary District 4060 in the Dominican Republic.
    • Literacy Program. This $24,000 initiative provides books for kids in classrooms and at home, where they seldom have books of their own, to empower schools to create a “culture of reading.” Three schools received books in May 2022 and four more May 2023, with plans for three more schools in May, 2024.
    • Water Project. With a $61,000 investment, Rotary is building two large water tanks and connecting a new water source through a 13-kilometer aqueduct to serve six villages where about 1000 households now get water only two or three days a week. The project will provide water to every home daily.
    • School Shade Garden. Rotary is building one of our Greenhouse Gardens at a school serving a very low-income neighborhood. The project will teach nutrition, biology, math and other subjects as it produces vegetables for the school food program, and could be replicated in other area schools.
    Local Rotaries also back service projects in Guatemala and Honduras.
     
    “This visit will strengthen our collaboration with Dajabon Rotarians and help inspire new projects to support the community there,” said Ed Petersen, past president of the Rotary Club of Everett. “A core principle at Rotary is ‘Service above Self,’ and that matters to us, both in Dajabon and here in Snohomish County.”
     
    The public is invited to a September 14 dinner at the Indigo Hotel on Everett’s waterfront, where local Rotary clubs and the Dajabon visitors will speak about Rotary’s local and international service projects. The event begins at 5 p.m. Cost is $60 per person. To purchase tickets, contact: