Spring Valley Rotary

C.A.R.T.      Coins for Alzheimer's Research Trust

"... started with Rotarians voluntarily emptying their
pockets of change at weekly meetings."

Rotarians in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia are the sponsors of The CART Fund (Coins for Alzheimer's Research Trust) dedicated to raising funds to provide the "seed" money for cutting edge, high impact research in hopes of finding a cure/prevention for Alzheimer's disease. The program was initiated in 1995 by the Rotary Club of Sumter, then adopted by District 7770 and now has spread to all the Rotary Districts in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.

Alzheimer's disease is claiming more and more victims worldwide every day. Over 5.5 million Americans are now victims and medical scientists predict that unless a prevention/cure is found that the number of American victims will grow to 16 million within the next 20 to 25 years. Further, that without a cure, one out of every 10 living Americans will ultimately become victims. It is now thought that every 70 seconds an American is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (1238 Americans daily). It is estimated that 75 percent of the world's victims live outside of the United States.

In order to accomplish this, Rotarians are encouraged to voluntarily empty their pockets of change, or what ever amount they choose, whenever they attend a Rotary meeting.  As of April 2009, over $2,800,000.00 has been contributed to CART. Twelve grants have been made totaling $2,750,000.00.

The Fund is directed by a CART Board of Directors made up of representatives from the sponsoring Rotary Districts. The CART Fund by-laws require that 100% of all donated funds must go to Alzheimer’s Disease Research.

The effectiveness of donated change can be illustrated by considering that in the 11 Rotary districts of the Carolinas and Georgia, there are approximately 35,100 Rotarians. Assuming 85 percent attendance, 48 meetings a year and an average donation of just 35 cents, we can raise over $500,000 for research annually. Using this formula, Rotarians in the USA and Canada, combined, could provide over $5.5 million annually for Alzheimer's research.

CART is currently sponsored by Rotary Districts:  6900, 6910, 6920, 7670, 7680, 7690, 7710, 7720, 7730, 7750 and 7770.  For more information visit:  www.cartfund.org.