PONTIAC -- A Lifesong for Orphans school in Kitwe, Zambia has a renovated well, and students and teachers there soon will have desks, chairs, backpacks, clothes and other much needed supplies thanks to the efforts of several Central Illinois Rotary clubs.

It all started a couple of years ago when Pontiac Rotary Club member Steve Walters learned of an effort to help the school led by the Gridley-based Lifesong.

Walters' brother-in-law is Wayne Steffen, orphan advocate for Lifesong, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to help orphans worldwide and offer financial assistance to couples wanting to adopt children.

Steffen had just returned from a trip to the Kitwe school - one of several schools and orphanages Lifesong helps to support in four countries - and told Walters how the pump on the school's well didn't work and that the tower needed to be replaced.

Walters thought it sounded like a perfect project for Pontiac Rotary, knowing the club could apply for a matching grant through the Rotary International Foundation.

"We contacted the local Rotary group in Kitwe and together we came up with the money for the well and new equipment," said Walters.

Rotary Clubs in Roanoke, Gilman, Fairbury and Lincoln and their Rotary districts also contributed to the project.

In March 2008, Walters and Pontiac Rotary Club members Bill Schweizer, Dr. Bryan Stoller and Sarah Grove (who has since married Walters and is now Sarah Walters), accompanied Steffen on a trip to Kitwe to introduce Rotary Club members there to the project.

"You have a host club and a giving club working together," said Schweizer. "We developed a working relationship with Zambia that's second to none."

As an added bonus, Stoller, a Pontiac optometrist, offered eye exams to residents in Kitwe and the surrounding area while on the trip.

When the group returned, it decided to coordinate another project to benefit the Kitwe school: securing and filling a 40-foot container with supplies and shipping it to the school. Another Rotary International Foundation matching grant combined with donations from the Central Illinois Rotary clubs that helped with the well renovation will cover the cost of the container and of shipping it to Zambia.

On a Saturday in late May, dozens of volunteers, including about 50 youths, helped load boxes and started filling the container with donations from businesses, churches, Rotary clubs and other area organizations.

The container is half full and won't be shipped until it is filled.

Walters said he hopes other Rotary Clubs will get more involved with the Lifesong effort by writing their own grants for other projects.

"We spend a lot of time at the district level working with youth, telling the kids … do more for others than others do for you," said Schweizer. "These guys (at Lifesong) do that. They are living examples of that."

How to help

The Pontiac Rotary Club still needs items to help fill a container that will be shipped to a Lifesong-supported school in Kitwe, Zambia. Here are some suggestions:

• Gardening tools
• Books
• Desks
• Blackboards/whiteboards
• Teacher's guides
• Kitchen supplies
• Student supplies
• Paper products
• Ready-to-assemble playground equipment
• Anything else school-related

If you have a donation or want more information, contact Steve Walters at (815) 353-9130 or e-mail stevewalters@maxwire.net or call Wayne Steffen at (309) 747-4567 or e-mail wayne@lifesongfororphans.org.