What We Support and Why

Focus - The Sertoma Club has a central mission of supporting causes related to Communicative Disorders, primarily including speech or hearing concerns.  Additionally, the club is dedicated to promoting education, civic responsibility, and opportunities for those with special needs. 

Funding support - As such, the Club divides its charitable focuses into four primary groups and allocates its giving and support accordingly.  Those four areas include:

1)        The Freedom Essay Scholarship program – a contest for area high school seniors that picks a topic related to a constitutional or legal issue that is currently facing our country.  Students are encouraged to write a one-page essay on that topic.  At least three area people (non-club members) judge the essays on a standardized criteria.  The winner gets a $3500 scholarship to the college or university of his/her choice.  Three runner’s up are also chose and receive $2,000 scholarships to the institution of higher learning of their respective choices as well.

2)        Causes that focus on speech or hearing issues – area charities that serve individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or who have a speech disorder.  A portion of our funds reserved for charitable giving by the Club are allocated each year specifically for nonprofit organizations or groups with this focus.

3)        Events specifically sponsored by the Club to benefit our target focus or to raise money for charitable purposes – Examples of  these include our annual Fantasy Baseball Camp for deaf and hard of hearing youth, our Civic Cup Challenge golf tournament, our Shooting for Preservation skeet shoot, and others.

4)        Other not-for-profit organizations or causes that provide specific services in which the Club has a special interest. – Examples include Big Brothers, the YMCA summer camp for youth, a tornado relief fund provided for area residents who lost their homes, and others.

 For application information right click the link and then save as. Click here.

Hands-on Support - The Club also has a history of having its members roll up their sleeves and provide time, skills, and some of their own resources to address area needs.  Examples of this include building ramps for wheelchair-access to buildings and homes, ring the Christmas bells for the Salvation Army, special cleanup days and repairs for a group home operated by Centerstone Mental Health Center, providing additional manpower for the Fantasy Baseball Camp in conjunction with the Nashville Sounds baseball team, etc.