Service Strengthens Pawtucket Club

The Pawtucket Quota club in Rhode Island, U.S.A., focuses on one sustained service effort—helping very low-income families through a local YWCA child care program. Club members say the worthwhile endeavor is reason enough to keep coming back to Quota.

The program helps families, mostly headed by single mothers, with incomes well below the U.S. government's "Very Low-Income" level. Each month, the club organizes a specific project, such as collecting appropriate books, supplies, teaching materials, clothing, costumes, toys, or holiday gifts at a club meeting and delivering them to the facility. For Mother's Day, members dedicated their Hands-On Project Meeting to creating beautiful May baskets of flowers for children to give to their mothers. Some members also volunteer at the facility, assisting or reading to kids.

Children attending affordable day care in Rhode Island receive May Day baskets (gifts for their mothers!) created by Pawtucket club members.

Pawtucket club leaders say the service partnership allows members to direct time, talent, and treasure to a specific population of women and children for visible results, providing a strong motivation for member recruitment and retention.