Rotary club donation will aid area senior citizens

Thanks to area Rotary Club members, senior citizens in Spokane Valley may be sleeping a little warmer this winter.

The Rotary Charitable Trust donated $14,000 this month to help seniors at the Spokane Valley Community Center.

“It’s just like a gift from God,” said community center director Mollie Dalpae. “It stabilizes a significant portion of our community that without this assistance would have nowhere to turn.”

The funds were given with the stipulation that they be spent on seniors, Dalpae said. Money will go toward helping senior citizens pay utility bills and to help them with medical care.

“It allows us to buy them some time so we can hook them up … with other agencies or businesses that can subsidize them continually,” Dalpae said.

The Spokane Valley Rotary Club made a similar contribution last year and felt it was important to help the areas seniors again, said Charitable Trust chairman Herb McIntosh.

“We think that that community center does a super job in serving the senior citizens and all of the needy people in the Valley,” McIntosh said.

McIntosh said Dalpae sends out written reports about how the money is spent on seniors, which are shared with the Rotary members.

“If you read some of those reports, they just make tears come to your eyes,” McIntosh said. “There’s need out there, and it might not solve all the problems, but it can help.”