BOARD PRESIDENT'S LETTER

May 27, 2009

Dear Fellow Akron Rotarians,

As each of us is aware the Rotary Camp for Children with Special Needs is the flagship program of our club. For 85 years we have supported this program through donations of time, money, and personal resources. Over the past ten years programs at the camp have grown substantially, tripling summer enrollment and significantly expanding year round usage.

Unfortunately, while our camp is growing, our facilities are not keeping pace. The last major facility development at the camp was the Dining Hall built in 1963, 46 years ago. Due to the ever changing needs of our camper families, the bathrooms, cabins, and many program areas are either not fully accessible to our campers, sufficient for all the purposes they are utilized or in any way appealing to parents or outside guests (especially the bathrooms). Over the past few years, the Rotary Camp Board has made considerable efforts in planning for the future of our camp's facilities and developed a master plan which will improve the delivery of service to our campers and families, as well as the entire community.

The initial phase of the facility plan created will cost approximately $3.2 million. This plan includes extensive renovations to our cabins and waterfront, new construction of a recreation center and bathrooms, the camp's most needed repairs and replacements, and programmatic developments. In exploring the feasibility of raising millions of dollars both inside and outside Rotary, the CampBoard hired a fundraising expert, Goettler & Associates, to conduct interviews and tell us what was practical. After a month of interviews, Goettler returned a recommendation that between $3,000,000-$4,000,000 could be raised if the extended Akron Rotary Family could raise $1,000,000 of those dollars first.

As a result of that report and the discussions that followed, the Akron Rotary Foundation has decided to offer a challenge grant to the club which states that if the members of the Rotary Club of Akron and their friends and family are successful in raising $700,000 over the next two years, the Akron Rotary Foundation will agree to contribute the last $300,000 to the campaign, thereby fulfilling the initial $1,000,000 that our feasibility study consultant, Goettler & Associates, though would be necessary to have a successful capital campaign. While the Camp, Club and Foundation Boards support moving forward with the Capital Campaign, such an endeavor will only be successful if the club members support it.

By way of background, the Akron Rotary Foundation was originally created in 1991 in part to shield potential liability away from the camp and club and in part to raise enough money so that the return on investment income could sustain the operational needs for the camp for years to come. The original plan has been realized in that the Akron Rotary Foundation currently contributes nearly one-quarter of the camp's operating budget by giving $115,000 in annual operating funds. In addition to the camp's annual operational