Sponsor a Reef in Bocas del Toro

We make it easy, and free, for your club to have an environmental project this Rotary year. Every reef also funds children’s dental care, rainforest replanting and youth leadership.

Sponsor a Reef Give a Reef Gift Give Monthly

Goal: 7 reefs by December 31

3 of 7 funded. Only 4 large reefs to go.

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Center reef: Rotary Club of Newport Beach. Reef 1: Rotary Clubs of San Mateo, CA and Barrie, ON. Reef 2: Rotary Club of Ojai West. Reef 3: Solana Beach Eco-Rotary with Del Mar, Rancho Santa Fe and Escondido. Also available: 7 Rotaract Reefs at $2,500 each.

One reef, and look how many fish come home

Within months of placement, schools of fish move in and coral and sponges cover the wheels. A nurse shark now lives on the reef full time, one of the best signs that a reef is healthy and working.

Schools of fish on one Rotary Reef

Our resident nurse shark. Look for its fin under the wheel, upper left, at about 12 seconds.

Rotary wheel reefs on the sea floor, covered in sponges and coral — Rotary wheels on the reef today, covered in sponges and coral

More from the reef

Sponges and a school of fish on a reef wheel

Sponges and coral growing on the wheels

Swimming along the Rotary wheels

A Rotaract Reef in place, lowered from a panga with no crane

Two ways to sponsor

Rotary Reef

$5,000

A 6 foot Rotary wheel reef named for your club, placed by GPS, with photos and video. Each outer wheel stands for one of Rotary’s 7 Areas of Focus, and you can choose yours.

Sponsor $5,000

Rotaract Reef

$2,500

A 3 foot reef wheel cast in Bocas with rescued glass from the Bocas recycling center. It is lowered from a panga with no crane, so smaller clubs, schools and groups can have a reef too. Only 7 available this year.

Sponsor $2,500

Reef Gift Certificates

The perfect Christmas gift. Each certificate is made out in your recipient’s name. Every $100 plants a rainforest tree, gives a child a year of toothbrushes and toothpaste, a fluoride treatment for a child, reading glasses for a senior, plants coral on a reef, removes invasive lionfish and funds an ocean lesson for a classroom.

Coral Friend

$100

Give $100

Reef Guardian

$250

Give $250

Reef Champion

$500

Give $500

After you give, email our contact form with the recipient’s name and we will send the certificate.

Become a Monthly Reef Partner

$25, $50 or $100 a month keeps the work going all year: reef care, tree planting, fluoride days and clinics. Change or stop anytime. On the PayPal page, check “Make this a monthly donation.”

$25 a month $50 a month $100 a month

Time, Treasure and Talent

“I wanted to design a program that any Interact, Rotaract or Rotary club can sponsor by giving any one of the three things every project needs: time, treasure or talent.”
Steve Bender, President, Rotary Club of Newport Beach

Time

Join a trip to Bocas, plant trees in the Trammell S. Crow Rare Tree Forest, or help build the macaw aviary.

Treasure

Sponsor a reef, give a gift certificate, give monthly, or put leftover District Designated Funds to work.

Talent

Dentists, hygienists, divers, builders, teachers and storytellers are all needed.

Your club’s own funding page, free

Your club does not have to invest a penny. We build a funding page in your club’s name for your website and social media, track every donation, build and place the reef, and send photos and video. Not ready by December 31? Start on 2027.

Set up our club’s free page

What your reef funds

Building and placing the reefs, coral restoration and the coral seed bank
Free children’s dental clinics with Ayuda International and USC dental students
Fluoride in our partner schools, applied by local Indigenous women we hire and train
The Macaw Project: almendro planting with volunteers and MiAmbiente to bring back the Great Green Macaw, and the Trammell S. Crow Rare Tree Forest in Dolphin Bay, funded by the reef program
Water filters delivered to Centro Educativo Básico General San Cristóbal in 2019
Proposed for 2027: solar panels and a backup battery for a school
Next goal: raising funds in 2027 and 2028 for a macaw aviary

Come see it: August 2027 trips

We are part of the Volunteer Tourism program. Our teams come in the off season, when island families need the business most, and participating sponsors give volunteers discounts on lodging, food, dive education and packages. Trips for dentists, divers and aviary builders.

I’m interested

Why you can trust it

2nd place worldwide in the 2021 #IFixThePlanet challenge, sponsored by RI President Holger Knaack (2020-21), and the pilot project of the 4-7-8-17 program at 47817.org. Gifts go to Ayuda International, a 501(c)(3) public charity, Tax ID 46-3883406. Checks: payable to Ayuda International, mailed to Steve Bender, 2901 W Coast Hwy, Suite 200, Newport Beach, CA 92663.

Questions: our contact form · 949-239-9160