Service Projects

In 2025, the Rotary Club of Wilsonville partnered with the Target store in Wilsonville to identify two local families that could use a little extra joy around Christmas time. Club members learned what the family’s greatest needs were and what would be most helpful for them. One family had recently lost their home in a fire and needed a car seat for their young child, along with a few household items. Another family had fallen on hard times and received shoes, art supplies, toys, and clothing for their three young children. Target team members then held an in-store team building event to shop for necessities, toys, crafts, clothes, and other gift items, and wrapped each one. Rotary club members picked up and delivered the gifts to the families’ homes right before Christmas. Target expressed appreciation for our help and looks forward to continuing this partnership in future years. 

The Rotary Club of Wilsonville has partnered with the Interact Club of Wilsonville High School to help pack food boxes at the Sunshine Division warehouse in Wilsonville. 

In 2025, the Rotary Club of Wilsonville gathered books to be donated to the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, Oregon. In all, 140 books were donated, including some specific books and authors as requested. The Oregon Department of Corrections appreciated and put to use all of the donated material. Black Bear Diner served as the drop off point for donations.

The Rotary Club of Wilsonville and its Under 40 (U40) Fellowship does regular pickup on Canyon Creek Road with help from local Interact students.

The Rotary Club of Wilsonville has participated in multiple builds with North Willamette Valley Habitat for Humanity, helping people achieve the dream of home ownership while investing their own sweat equity. 

The Wilsonville Rotary Foundation has expanded the reach of the award winning Dolly Parton's Imagination Library program to include the children of adults in custody (AIC) at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. No matter where these children live,  they receive their own book in the mail each month. Enrolling the children of AICs is bittersweet, sweet because we’re delivering the joy of reading to these young minds who are separated from their mothers.

This  multi-club project, led by the Rotary Club of Portland Metropolitan, purchased a mobile medical emergency clinic (MEC) in collaboration with the Rotary Club of Lviv, Ukraine. The bullet-and-explosion-resistant unit was built and deployed in Ukraine, in response to the Russian invasion providing  relief in areas where Ukrainian hospitals and clinics were destroyed.

Through a partnership with the West Linn-Wilsonville School District’s Family Empowerment Center, the Rotary Club of Wilsonville provides basic necessities to school children in need: meals, clothing and school supplies. School teachers and counselors refer children to the FEC for assistance. We provide items to stock the FEC shelves so that the response to each child's needs is timely and effective.  At an annual back-to-school event, Rotarians and Interactors volunteer in dispersing school supplies, such as a fully packed backpack.

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In 2019, the Rotary Club of Wilsonville partnered with the Rotary Club of Kakamega, Kenya and the KOTA Foundation to provide 300 locally manufactured desks for six rural schools in Africa. The students benefitting from the project ranged from ages 5–16. Students were missing some of the most basic necessities in their classrooms, including desks, books, uniforms, school supplies and building infrastructure. Rotarian Jake McMichael spearheaded the project. “We’re proud to be able to support this important project,” he said. “Imagine trying to learn in a classroom in which you have to stand all day while trying to pay attention, write, do mathematics and engage in all of the other subject areas. From everything we’ve seen through photos and correspondence, this is a wonderful group of students and school administrators. We’re grateful to the KOTA Foundation and our counterpart Rotary Club in Kakamega for helping us participate in this great effort.”

We partnered with the Oregon Institute of Technology, the nonprofit Solar Hope, and the Rotary Club of Iringa, Tanzania to carry out a three-year Rotary Vocational Training Grant project. Students in renewable energy from at OIT, along with OIT professors and staff, installed 45 sustainable solar photovoltaic systems and 10 sustainable water purification units in the Iringa region. The solar systems were expected to generate 60–440 watts, and they included batteries for electric power storage. The water purification units were expected to provide clean water for 50–500 people, primarily children. A $120,000 project budget covered travel, local transportation, accommodations, food, and other organizational components.  The solar panels and ancillary equipment were donated by a solar company and the local Iringa Rotary club.