ASTRA applies for award

Montrose High School's ASTRA Club, sponsored by Altrusa of Montrose, kept very busy this past year completing an outstanding number of hands-on service projects that will impact people in need both locally and internationally. Their application for a Service Award from Altrusa International can be read here.

Our local ASTRA Club has won this international award 3 times in the past, including last year (2006/2007). We wish them the best of luck with this impressive resume, and hope this year will mark their 4th win.



Here is a summary of their projects -- keep in mind that all this was accomplished in just ONE year:

• partnered with Altrusa for a highway clean-up project


• walked in the Bosom-Buddy Walk/Run


• shopped for Tandem Family children at Christmas. Twenty-one children received wrapped presents that were delivered to Health and Human Services for at-risk youth


• stuffed 60 Hospice Grief Bags for children experiencing anticipatory grief or who had just lost a loved one


• coat checkers and servers for Hospice and Palliative Care of Western Colorado’s benefit gala


• 16-week project for Hilltop’s Nurturing Parenting Class. Members babysat infants and toddlers for a total of 112 hours.


• raised funds for The Pregnancy Center, which helps pregnant teens


• assembled 30 boxes for Social Services. The boxes are filled with personal care items and school supplies purchased by the club. Altrusans contributed items to this project as well.


• donated funds to Kelly Marston, a ten year-old battling cancer


• helped fund a teacher for 1 year in the village of Nunthala, Nepal. The $500 ASTRA donation was matched by our Altrusa club. The teacher’s specific duty is to prepare students for the Iron Gate Exam, a test required for entrance into any kind of secondary program.


• donated $500 to Friendship House in Kathmandu. Friendship House rehabilitates and educates girls retrieved from human trafficking activities. The funds will be used to by the girls to identify and fund community service projects, much like Altrusans.


• filled thirty pencil boxes with personal care items and school supplies for the girls at Friendship House


• raised funds for Pennies for Peace to build schools in the dangerous and remote mountainous areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.


• raised funds to benefit orphans at the Charisma Bethel Children’s Home in Mindanao, Philippines. Seven teens from Montrose will visit the orphanage this summer.

ASTRA raised funds for the above projects by creating and selling Christmas wreaths, earning tips at the Hospice Gala, and with their signature fundraising event, Flamingo Flockings.