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Rotarians support Garden of Child with 23 consecutive yearly donations

| 15 May 2012 | 05:57
    Garden of the Child founder Sister Anna Roche accepts the organizationís 23nd annual contribution from the Warwick Valley Rotary Club. Leo Kaytes, left, helped promote the start-up efforts in 1989 when he was Rotary president. Since then Warwick Rotarians have donated almost $25,000 to Garden of the Child. At right is Wayne Patterson, Rotary Warwick Rotary president. Photo by Stan Martin
    Garden of the Child founder Sister Anna Roche accepts the organizationís 23nd annual contribution from the Warwick Valley Rotary Club. Leo Kaytes, left, helped promote the start-up efforts in 1989 when he was Rotary president. Since then Warwick Rotarians have donated almost $25,000 to Garden of the Child. At right is Wayne Patterson, Rotary Warwick Rotary president. Photo by Stan Martin

WARWICK — “Service Above Self” is the motto of Rotary, an organization of area business and professional men and women. Sister Anna Roche, SC, founder of Monroe-based Garden of the Child, is guided by a similar creed.

In 1989, Sister Anna approached Leo Kaytes, a Warwick auto dealer and then president of the Warwick Valley Rotary Club, with an idea for starting an early childhood/middle school detection, intervention and prevention program. With seed money from the Warwick Rotarians, Garden of the Child was started.

This month, Sister Anna received her 23rd annual contribution from the Warwick Valley Rotary Club, totaling almost $25,000 in two decades.

Her educational program services students from kindergarten through the eighth grade. Seminars and the summer programs offer enrichment in the areas of art, music, fashion, cooking, baking, the basic drills and skills of several sports and tutoring.

The Garden of the Child assists youngsters from Chester, Goshen, Warwick, Monroe, Florida, Washingtonville, Harriman, Central Valley, Woodbury and Cornwall.