Club Activities

The "Camden to Camden" project has been called the "Crown Jewel" of the Camden Rotary. One of many programs carried out over the years to enhance the quality of life of Camden children, it is the most ambitious and visible.
"Camden to Camden" began in 1989 when NBC Nightly News televised a series: "The Children of Camden." It showed how children who attend Northeast Elementary School in Camden, NJ, live with drugs and crime as constant companions.
After seeing the series, David Jackson, then President of the Rotary club of Camden, Maine, contacted Ms. Frances Colon Gibson, Principal of the school and Peter Brooke Smith, then President of the Rotary Club of Camden, NJ, to see what could be done to introduce these children to another way of life.
Each year since then about 30 children from Northeast Elementary (renamed Rafael Cordero Molina) School have spent a week in the summer as guests of host families recruited by the Rotary Club of Camden, Maine.
The Program is a collaborative effort of the school and the Rotary clubs of Camden, Maine and Camden new Jersey. "Camden to Camden" has been incorporated into a separate non-profit organization sponsored and supported by the Camden Rotary.

The program is based at Camden county vocational School and is sponsored in partnership with the Merchantville / Pennsauken Rotary club. Members have a community and an international project each year and conduct fund raisers for their projects.