Raised Bed Garden built for Community Options

Altrusans Diane Winger, Lorie Bollig, and Joyce Loss (center row)  join teacher Robyn Unger (back row, far right) and her 4th grade class and people from Community Options by the new raised bed garden being built at a group home.

Thanks to funding from Altrusa, and lots of hard work by Northside Elementary students, Community Options staff and clients, a new raised bed garden has been created at a group home for developmentally disabled Montrose residents.

Robyn Unger's 4th grade class used their math skills to help design and build the garden's wooden structure.  In addition to the raised bed, the students and adults associated with Community Options cleared old roots and debris for additional landscaping at the group home.  Within the next several weeks, the gardens will really take shape as flowers are planted.

Golf Tournament coming June 6

Altrusa Foundation Golf Tournament
to benefit Lifeline

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Black Canyon Golf Course

4 Person Scramble Format
Registration at 8:00 am
Shotgun Start at 8:30 am

$80 per player includes golf, cart, lunch, range balls and prizes!
Prizes for Longest Drive, Closest to the Pin and MORE!! Silent Auction of Great Items!

For an entry form to register for the tournament, click here. Entry deadline is June 4, 2009.

Would you or your business like to become a sponsor, donate a door prize, or provide items for the player gift bags?
Click here for a donation form.

Thanks to everyone for your support!

Questions? Contact Elaine Moore at 249-8714

International Relations Committee donates books

Carol McDermott, School Board President, accepts copies of Listen to the Wind and Three Cups of Tea (Young Readers edition) from Altrusa members Carol Parker and Diane Winger.

This donation is part of an ongoing project by Altrusa's International Relations Committee to support the work of Central Asia Institute.  Its founder, Greg Mortenson, has spearheaded the building of over 70 schools in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, emphasizing education for girls.  Three Cups of Tea (Young Readers edition) tells Mortenson's story starting with his promise to build a school for the children in the town of Korphe, who he found studying while sitting on the bare ground and using sticks to scratch lessons in the dirt.  Listen to the Wind tells Mortenson's story from the point of view of the children of Korphe, and is beautifully illustrated.

The committee donated copies of Listen to the Wind to each Montrose County elementary school, and copies of Three Cups of Tea (Young Readers edition) to each middle school.  In addition, copies of both books were donated to the Montrose Library.

Val Burnell (L) and Diane Winger (R) present books to Jana Ackerman, Outreach Coordinator for Children's Services at the Montrose Library.

Both of these books are currently ranked #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list in their respective categories.  Mortenson's original book, Three Cups of Tea - One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time, has been on the New York Times Bestseller list for 114 weeks as of this writing, often in the #1 position.

Kiva donation selections completed

The initial $175 donation by our International Relations Committee and individual members of Altrusa has now been loaned to recipients through the non-profit Kiva organization.  It is our hope that these loans to groups in developing countries will help improve the lives of people living in poverty by helping their businesses, which in turn serve their communities with health care, school supplies, and other services and goods.


Our initial loans have gone to groups in:

Peru - includes a bookstore selling school supplies

Paraguay - miscellaneous businesses, including food and clothing vendors

Pakistan - plumbing supplies (to deliver sanitary water) and other businesses

Uganda - drugs for a medical clinic 

Bolivia - natural medicines

Uganda - pharmacy

As these loans are repaid to us (without interest), we will have the option of loaning the funds again to other recipients in the developing world to empower them to lift themselves out of poverty.

Would you like to be part of this project?  You can join our Altrusa Loaning Team and select recipients for your own personal Kiva loans.