LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Moraga Rotary fundraiser and e-waste collection success


Campolindo Interact Club members and Troop 246 Boy Scouts help hand out meal orders at "Dinner with Rotary" at La Finestra restaurant in Moraga. From left: Interactor Katelyn Shipman, Scouts Nitin Ravikumar, Aiden Goldstein, Sam Storrs and Jack Elder. Photos provided

La Finestra restaurant in the Moraga Shopping Center, owned by Rotarian Jeff Assadi, produced delicious hot spaghetti, meatballs, and tossed salad dinners for more than 285 happy local citizens Sept. 24 for "Dinner with Rotary," which was organized and promoted by Moraga Rotary Club. Several Moraga Rotarians were handing out the orders in a socially distanced way, and were assisted by members of the Campolindo Interact Club and Boy Scout Troop 246, both sponsored by Moraga Rotary. Rather than cooking their own dinner that night, the firefighters at the MOFD Rheem fire station on Moraga Road enjoyed their "Dinner with Rotary."

Moraga Rotary President Brian South was very happy with the large community support of the dinner, and patrons were pleased with the quality of the food and value offered. Some comments included: "Tonight's dinner was amazing. . our dinner was delicious . a good food deal at a fair price . nice to see Boy Scouts and kids helping out with the orders . Job well done." South said that a similar event in mid-November is being planned, and that reservation details will be posted at moragarotary.org soon.

Funds raised by this event will largely be used to continue to support school safety projects, including security cameras at local schools. The security camera project was initially funded by donations at "A Nite at the Races," the Moraga Rotary dinner/party/fundraiser held in early March. Installation of security cameras at Joaquin Moraga Intermediate School has already started. In 2019, Moraga Rotary also raised $12,000 toward the purchase of radio communication devices for all teachers in MSD, which have all been distributed.

Moraga Rotary also conducted its 22nd semiannual e-waste/document shredding collection in late September at the Moraga Shopping Center. The chairman and original organizer of the event, Rotarian Rich Render, said, "Yesterday will probably turn out to be the most successful event we ever had. Lines of cars forever. Had to cut them off at 4:10 p.m. The contractor had to make three truck trips back to his warehouse because we had so much." Rotarians were assisted by Boy Scouts from Troop 246. Render is planning another e-waste/document shredding collection in the spring 2021, and he thanked the Bruzzone family, owners of the Moraga Shopping Center, for supporting and publicizing this collection fundraiser service project. All the material was safely disposed of according to California requirements by the licensed contractor that Rotary has used since inception of the project in 2009.

Moraga Rotary is a 53-year-old service club within Rotary International, one of the five Clubs in Lamorinda, and one of about 33,000 Rotary Clubs in about 200 countries. Regular meetings are held at noon on most Tuesdays online via Zoom due to the pandemic. If you are interested in information about Rotary, or would like to donate their worthy causes, please visit the website at moragarotary.org, or call Brian South, President, at (925) 888-7052.