27 May 2013 Conway Rotary gives $50,000 in memory of Mike Pike
Since 2004, the Conway Noon Rotary Club has been helping coordinate and fund projects in Ghana West Africa to help people that suffer from poverty, poor health and the lack of access to fresh potable water.
Fellow Rotarians Sen. Jason Rapert and Mike Pike were project coordinators for the first project the club undertook which is now known as the Kormantse Uppertown Water Project.
It was recently announced that the club is once again directing resources and assistance to Ghana to help children who have been rescued out of human trafficking.
The day before Rapert and Pike were to depart for Ghana to commission a water project in 2006, Pike died of a massive heart attack. When Rapert met with Pike’s fiancé and his mother, they informed him that Mike had planned to adopt a Ghanaian orphan after marriage.
In light of the tragic loss of Pike and knowing he intended to do so much there, Rapert and others felt that it would be a great honor to build an orphanage in his name. The dream of an orphanage project has continued to be a goal, but had not been realized until now.
Just a few weeks ago, it was learned that Pike’s mother had left a sizable donation to the Conway Noon Rotary Club in her will with the stipulation that it be used to fund an orphanage project in Ghana in Mike’s name. Seven years after Mike Pike’s death, his love and affection for the children of Ghana will now be realized.
On April 25, during a very special weekly meeting, Rotary President Rik Sowell and Rapert presented a $50,000 check to Touch A Life co-founder Pam Cope and Ghana In-County directors Garret and Kelly Nichols for the Ghana orphanage in the memory of Mike Pike. Plans are to construct a care facility for kids in Ghana rescued from human trafficking. The orphanage currently cares for 47 kids. Cope was humbled at the gift and said the money would be used to see to the kids’ medical needs.
The Ghana program through Touch A Life Foundation focuses on helping children rescued out of human trafficking and modern day slavery. In some cases, the children they serve were used by their masters to perform the dangerous task of untangling fishing nets underwater on Lake Volta. The slave children were forced overboard to free them.
During the process of untangling the nets, children would risk becoming trapped and many kids have drowned.
Sowell said, “Mike Pike’s unselfish gift is another example of Rotarians placing service above self.”
