On May 24th, Uchicago's Rotaract Club hosted a Festival of Hope.
The Rotaract Club is an international organization that focuses on community service for young adults.
Rotary's End Polio Now is the organization's largest campaign. In Hutch courtyard, students could take pictures to help promote the Rotary's mission.
Yuting Shao is the president of Rotaract Club Uchicago. Here she explains the variety of social issues that the club supports. .
The club also aims to bring hope and happiness to the Uchicago community.
Which they accomplished with the help of some delicious catering.
Students wait in line for Asian food from a variety of local restaurants.
Club members arrived early to prepare for the celebration.
This included stringing copper string lights,
stringing paper lanterns,
putting up the clubs banner,
and balloon animals, because why not?
The club did a great job of lighting up Hutch Courtyard.
The club's president has a lot to think about to make the festival great.
Club members also start to set up the activity stations.
People start filing into Hutch Courtyard to see what the Festival of Hope is all about.
While the finishing touches are made to each table.
Festivities for the night included making paper lanterns,
decorating pots for plants and spices.
Members of the club help run the station, with an abundance of stickers.
It wasn't just the Roatact Club at the Festival of Hope. The club invited other RSO's to table at the Festival and tell people more about what they do to help the community.
THFRP : The Homeless Food Run Project was invited to the Festival of Hope.
Members of this club make 60+ food bags each week and visit shelters once a month.
Here, they explain that food shelters are not always the most reliable source of food for some, which is why they pass their sandwiches out on the streets of Chicago.
Along with the food bags, members include cards with information for homeless services.
The Rotaract Club is sponsored by Uncommon Fund, just like some of the groups invited to the Festival of Hope.
China Care came out to support Rotaract Club and its mission.
The RSO offered water Chinese calligraphy lessons while they explained that their organization provides medical care and activities to orphans in China.
At a local level, members of the club teach adopted Chinese children about the culture every Sunday.
Members of the Rotaract Club use the Four-Way Test to build better relationships. Truth, fairness, building better friendships, and benefit to all are the main codes.
The Chicago Youth Philanthropy Group and their members were also invited to take their own part in the Festival of Hope.
The groups main mission is to empower high school students by use of philanthropic efforts. High school students on the South Side create and allocate funds for their own community service projects.
Rotary's biggest campaign is to end polio but they also sponsor many other service projects like Free the Girls which helps sex trafficking survivors with new job opportunities.
Bright Spark was invited to the Festival because of their commitment to teaching enrichment programs at CPS schools.
Their enrichment programs supplement regular school. A popular "spark" is on computer programming, where students create a Simon Says game out of an Arduino.
The Rotaract Club had their own table where they shared their goals nationally, and in our own community.
Bridge Me, an organization to bring international students and local students together, also brought its ideas to the Festival of Hope.
The club aims to foster a larger community of connections between American and international students. Pairs of students are able to go on cultural outings, such as visiting restaurants or performances.
As the Festival drew to a close and the mission of the Rotaract was successfully dispersed, students left with an uplifting outlook on the Uchicago community.
