216 Van Raalte Ave
Holland, MI 49423 United States of America
1st, 4th, and 5th Thursdays of the month are luncheon meetings. The 2nd week of the month is a service activity. The 3rd week is an evening social gathering.
Anshu Chandra has 16 years of experience providing eye care in Haiti. She leads a permanent clinic in Fond-des-Blancs, supports mobile clinics, and helps train local eye care professionals, including the Haitian ophthalmology residency program in Port-au-Prince. She holds a Doctor of Optometry degree and completed her residency at SUNY College of Optometry. She has provided care in Nepal, Haiti, Peru, Lebanon, Tanzania, Honduras, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Indonesia, and India.
Karen Coy from Pine Rest gave an overview of the new Pine Rest Pediatric Center that opened in March of this year. The rise in youth anxiety and suicides led to this unique space just for young people.
The facility has, in addition to treatment facilities, a cafeteria, a family lounge, a chapel, and the first Ronald McDonald House Family Room. There are 4 programs housed at this new building.
Psychiatric Urgent care. This is a drop-in center open Monday - Thursday for emergency care for 6- 17-year-olds. The staff handles needs assessment, medication, and referrals. They are hoping to add a virtual option.
Outpatient treatment. This offers programs for eating disorders, substance abuse, and Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) for Autism Spectrum Disorders. This area serves 2-7 year olds with parents.
Partial Hospitalization. This is a day treatment option for 10-18-year-olds. Patients are in treatment for 6-10 days and spend evenings at their home. There is a special eating disorder program for 12-18-year-olds that is separate from adults. As the patient learns about healthy eating, their family is expected to join them for meals twice a week for a meal. This program works around the patient's school schedule.
Inpatient. This is for 5 years and above and is meant to stabilize a patient and direct them to other programs. This area has private rooms for all patients, sensory rooms, a gym, and their therapy dog Sully.
Evan Castillo from Black River Public School was one of the attendees from Holland at the Rotary Life Leadership conference this past summer. The conference is held annually at Ferris State University.
Evan was really impressed with the conference. He particularly remembers the main speaker talking about making mental shifts. He has been using this since the conference. He was impressed with the inclusive group of kids that attended the conference.
He also learned about Interact clubs for high school students and that there are 2 already in Holland. Evan is going to work to start an Interact Club at Black River.
Rotary District Newsletter | Basic Education and Literacy
A small blue-and-yellow house filled with books may not look like much. But place it where children live and play, keep it stocked, and something important happens: a child discovers a story, a parent finds a book to read aloud, and neighbors begin sharing.
That idea has guided the Holland Rotary Book House project since 2018, when the first house was installed at Nuestra Casa, the Westcore neighborhood community center at 253 W. 15th Street. The project began with a suggestion from a Rotary Committee including Esther Friselski, Elizabeth Giddings, and Sara DeVries, community outreach librarian at Herrick District Library. Rotarians John Helm and John Gronberg developed the design and secured materials, and Helm built the original houses.
Today, 17 Book Houses serve the greater Holland area near playgrounds, apartments, mobile-home parks, schools and subsidized housing. One is in Zeeland, and another is on private property in Holland. Each carries a plaque recognizing the Rotary-Herrick District Library partnership.
Herrick District Library, area schools, community donors and local bookstores provide gently used books. Volunteers from both Holland Rotary clubs monitor and refill the houses, while community volunteers help repair, build and keep them Rotary blue and yellow.
Past District Governor Jim White saw the impact firsthand while tending the Quincy Park Book House. Children left the playground and gathered as he restocked it. Their faces, and their parents' faces, lit up when he explained they could choose several books and keep them, no strings attached. In summer, the house often needed refilling weekly, clear evidence that families valued it.
Jim compares the project to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library because both allow children to build personal libraries. That ownership matters. A book can be reread, shared with a sibling, carried to school or kept as a favorite. The Book Houses also remove barriers: no registration, due date or trip to the library is required.
Volunteers from both Holland Rotary clubs and the community monitor and refill the houses, help repair, build and keep them painted Rotary blue and yellow.
When volunteers installed and stocked a Book House at housing for migrant workers, children gathered to watch. An 11-year-old boy received several books, sat at a picnic table, invited younger children to join him and began reading aloud. In minutes, a simple wooden house became a neighborhood reading room.
Other Rotary clubs across Michigan support little free libraries, but Holland's partnership between two Rotary clubs and a public library is special. For me, the Book Houses are Rotary at its best: practical, visible and rooted in service. Improving literacy does not always require a complicated program. Sometimes it begins with donated books, a willing volunteer and a little blue-and-yellow house within a child's reach.
HEARTSafe is a public health initiative to promote survival from sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Want to get involved too? Sign up for free hands-only CPR training here.
Karen Coy from Pine Rest gave an overview of the new Pine Rest Pediatric Center that opened in March of this year. The rise in youth anxiety and suicides led to this unique space just for young people.
Evan Castillo from Black River Public School was one of the attendees from Holland at the Rotary Life Leadership conference this past summer. The conference is held annually at Ferris State University.
HEARTSafe is a public health initiative to promote survival from sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Want to get involved too? Sign up for free hands-only CPR training .PNG)
Service Above Self Since 1920
Holland, MI 49423
United States of America