Posted by Robert (Bob) Schecter on Jan 11, 2019
The Rotary Club of Framingham—serving Holliston, Hopkinton, Ashland, and Framingham—presented its second Random Act of Kindness (RAK) award in December to a little girl suffering from a number of serious physical and developmental problems, including severe breathing difficulty stemming from a mutation of the pigngene. The club’s provision of a portable oxygen concentrator for Bialennys Polanco Mercado, now two years old, will make travel with her mother Yanitsa to doctors and hospitals for treatment much easier than with the very heavy, bulky unit they have been using. The new unit cost $2,595.
 
Earlier this year, the club supplied an oxygen concentrator to Yanitsa Mercado’s young niece, who suffers from a similar genetic mutation. So it was not surprising that Yanitsa looked to Rotary to help deal with what turns out to be a shared family problem.
 
Framingham Rotary Club RAK Awards are given to individuals who have demonstrated an acute need of financial assistance that is not met from another source, or in response to an urgent situation. Examples of other qualified individuals include a family displaced by a fire, flood, or other disaster. 
 
The Rotary Club of Framingham’s devotion to community service can be measured by the non-profits and individuals it has supported financially, and with hands-on service, for almost a century, including: the MetroWest YMCA; Pearl Street Food Pantry; Callahan Senior Center; seniors in public housing; Boys and Girls Club; college scholarships for high school seniors; collections for the Special Olympics; Natick VNA; and many, many more.