Education

Our goal is to strengthen the capacity of communities to support education and literacy. We support elementary tutoring for all children by pairing students with mentors for success, as well as offer learning programs to students and adults.

The Gig Harbor Rotary Foundation supports secondary education by providing learning opportunities, and through scholarships.

With over $2 million in assets, the Gig Harbor Rotary Foundation transforms your gifts and endowments to the Foundation into scholarships and service projects that change lives. Since its inception, the foundation has awarded over 1 million dollars in secondary education scholarships to seniors graduating from Gig Harbor High School, Peninsula High School and Henderson Bay High School.

GIG HARBOR ROTARY FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS

With over $2.6 million in assets, the Gig Harbor Rotary Foundation transforms your gifts into scholarships and service projects that change lives.

Since 1989, the Foundation has gifted over $1.2 million of life-changing, scholarships to local students.

With your help, we can make lives better in our community. Your donation makes a difference to those who need our help most. More than 95 percent of donation funds go directly to supporting our scholarship and project funds.

The Mildred E McColl Fund

A $1.5 million endowment provides Secondary Education Scholarships to graduating High School Seniors who plan to further their education by attending College or University. These scholarships are renewable for 4 years, while the student is in attendance.

The fund was established by the generous gift of Mildred McColl. $1.5 million of the Rotary Club of Gig Harbor Foundation’s $2.6 million endowment fund were provided by the estate of Mildred E McCall, who lived on Hales Passage and was a nurse anesthesiologist during WWII. Her legacy lives on in the lives of the hundreds of Gig Harbor area youth.

The Natucci Fund

This Education Endowment fund provides for students seeking trade school or vocational school training at an institute of higher learning.

The Natucci Scholarship Fund was established by a generous $600,000 endowment gift by the Natucci family, long-time residents of Gig Harbor, WA.

The General Unrestricted Fund

Contribution to these funds provide for special circumstances needs of applicants toward special education projects and opportunities. The funds are awarded through request applications toward participatory learning experiences.

Permanent Endowment Fund

These funds are our insurance toward future generations. These funds are untouched and invested, allowing for their growth.

GIG HARBOR ROTARY FOUNDATION EDUCATION PROJECTS

Another way we support education by providing learning opportunities, through special teaching programs, like our inmate training program at the Washington Correction Center for Women, and through scholarships on their release. We also engage in youth education in the Greater Gig Harbor community through programs like the Tiny House Project at Peninsula High School, Communities in Schools and The First Tee Program. We welcome your participation in these projects and welcome your input to other worthy programs.

The Tiny House Project

– Peninsula High School Trades Education Program
Brings students in direct contact with the trades—using construction of a “tiny house” as the tool to introduce students to a wide variety of skills and trades:

  • Planning and design
  • Materials selection and procurement
  • Framing
  • Sheet rocking
  • Electrical
  • Plumbing
  • Taping and painting
  • Finish carpentry and cabinetry
  • Roofing
  • Components and materials typical of home construction

The program is a unique way to introduce and emphasize the value of career and technical training to high school students. The role of the Rotary Club of Gig Harbor has been to assist the school district with funding to purchase needed materials.

The First Tee

The First Tee Program provides educational programs that build character, instill life-enhancing values and promote healthy choices –using the game of golf as the vehicle. The Rotary Club of Gig Harbor is honored to be a partner in this program.

Open to all youth ages 5-18, the program offers 6 levels of progression:

  • Little Drivers – Introduction to the basics of golf Chip, Pitch, Putting and Full Swing;
  • Player – Teaches core values: Honesty, Respect, Responsibility; Instills healthy habits such as Energy, Mind, Friends, Community;
  • Par – Personal par in life, meet and greet;
  • Birdie – Goal setting (short term and long term);
  • Eagle – The goal ladder going rung to rung and diving deeper into how we set goals;
  • Ace –assist with a Player class and develop skills needed to be successful in life.

The impact The Rotary Club of Gig Harbor has on The First Tee program;

  • Get the program into every Elementary and Middle School in the Peninsula School District –serving over 6000 youth each year.
  • Increase of youth from Peninsula Schools that joined the LSE (Life Skill Education) in 2018.

Communities in Schools

Many kids come to school hungry, in need of clean clothes, with unaddressed health and dental issues, and even after sleeping out in the open, in a car, or on a friend or relative’s couch. It is hard to focus on school when you carry such a heavy load. Communities In Schools of Peninsula (CISP) helps to ease that burden – with connections to resources and services and a kind, nonjudgmental attitude. We are a CISP partner in this effort.

Rotarians have been volunteering for over 15 years as reading and math mentors, and are key in providing caring relationships to students who need a little extra help. Rotary members also serve on the board of directors for CISP, and have been instrumental in the growth of the organization. Donations from the Rotary Club of Gig Harbor’s Community Service Committee have supported vital programs and services over the years as well.

Prison Scholarship

Training and scholarships for inmates being released from Washington Correction Center for Women (Purdy Prison).

Continuing education is one of the major deterrents of recidivism of released prison inmates.  Simply stated: inmates who continue their education, either during or following incarceration, do not reoffend.

In 2014 the Rotary Club of Gig Harbor created the Women’s Prison Scholarship Endowment Fund for women being released from the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW).

We offer continuing education scholarships for women still incarcerated to pursue training inside the prison, and especially to those released and desiring to go back to school—college or trade/professional school. To date dozens of scholarships have been awarded to women attending a wide variety of institutions, including:

  • University of Washington
  • Tacoma Community College and numerous community colleges throughout the state
  • Evergreen College
  • Gene Juarez Beauty School
  • And many other higher learning institutions