The Peru Rotary Club supports and participates in many things in our area that benefit the Illinois Valley.
Our club helps to maintain Peru Rotary Park, located at 3rd and Pike street in Peru. The club has a park clean up day a few times a year, and has purchased playground equipment, benches, shelter and many other necessary things to make the Rotary Park an enjoyable place for the community. We are in the process of giving our park some upgrades! Please stay tuned for more details.
In 2008 our club started a Literacy Program which donates dictionaries to all area third graders that go to schools that feed into LaSalle-Peru Township High School.
Many of our members participate in United Way's Labor of Love. Our club has helped with this project for many years. Labor of Love provides home repairs to seniors and people in our community who are cannot afford or are unable to make home repairs.
Our club was instrumental in getting a Veterans Memorial installed in Peru. We were approached by members of the Peru VFW in February 2009 to assist in finding a site, and raising money to pay for the Memorial. A committee of club members worked with the city of Peru to locate a site for the monument, and consulted with designers to create a fitting memorial for veterans from Peru. The memorial was dedicated on July 3, 2010 and kicked off the citys 175th Anniversary Celebration.
Each week we have a "White Ticket" drawing. Participating club members each pay one dollar for a ticket and put a quarter on top of the ticket until the drawing. The member whose ticket is drawn gets to keep the quarters, and the dollars go to the charity.
The White Ticket Drawing Benefits the following charities through out the year.
January ~ Rotary Foundation
February ~ TBH Reunion
March ~ Feed His Children
April ~ Lighted Way
May ~ Horizon House
June ~ United Way
July/August/September ~ Illinois Valley Food Pantry
October ~ Peru PADS
November ~ Cops 4 Cancer
December ~ Illinois Valley Animal Rescue (IVAR)
