Students help with humanitarian project

By Linda Linonis

Students from Girard and Liberty helped with the project.

GIRARD — Do the math:

Girard-Liberty Rotary Club has sent 200,000 pounds of clothing and medical supplies per year to people and places in need. The project is in its 28th year.

S. Paul Wright of Brookfield said this year’s effort is unique in that students from Girard and Liberty are assisting in the effort. They’re helping to pack a semi-truck with clothing earmarked for Appalachia and clothing and medical supplies for Haiti.

“It’s called the Poorest of the Poor,” Wright said of the project. He said he hoped the young people’s involvement in the community-service project helped make them aware of the need in the United States and around the world.

Wright said Rotary got involved in this project when his son, Dr. Paul Wright, now a retired cardiologist from Brookfield, was a student at the University of Notre Dame. The younger Wright had volunteered at a clinic in Mexico. The elder Wright said his son relayed to him the poverty and poor medical care that the people of the country endured.

“We [Rotary] decided to do something to help,” said Wright, himself a retired longtime educator in Trumbull County.

The club has been doing it ever since.

“The clothing helps people improve their personal appearance,” he said.

The medical supplies provide assistance where there probably was none.

Student and mentors from Girard High School Robotics Team will help load the truck. The robotics team is involved in FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics competition, which also encourages community service.

Wright said the club works with the 910th Airlift Wing at Youngstown Air Reserve Station to transport the clothing and medical supplies. He explained that the humanitarian project fits into the Air Force’s requirement of fly time. “They’ve been doing it for years,” Wright said.

Once the clothing and medical supplies arrive at their destinations, a local Rotary club meets the delivery and helps in the distribution.