Successful literacy project in North Carolina becoming annual cosponsored event
One successful project often leads to another—and when two strong, committed organizations join together, the chances are even more likely that will occur.
As it turned out, the first Read In at the Boone Mall was a hit. It was so much so that a second annual Read In at the Mall is planned August 2, 2008, with morning and afternoon sessions.
Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Boone, North Carolina, and the Price Reading Council (an International Reading Association affiliate) of the campus of Appalachian State University, the idea has generated enthusiastic support, according to Gail R. Walker, an IRA member who is a former IRA council president and currently president of the Boone Rotary Club.
She proposed the first Read In, held September 6, 2007, to Kathy Schalgal, president of the Price Reading Council. Schalgal was enthusiastic about the idea, and Sharon Canipe was designated the Rotary chair of the project. She and Walker approached the Boone Mall manager, who was eager to help.
"We have had enthusiastic support from club members, mall management, Waldenbooks, Parkway Publishers, SIMS Furniture Store, and community leaders such as the mayor of Boone and the Watauga County Schools superintendent, who have agreed to share their love of reading with local children as well as goods and services," Walker said. "These celebrity readers shared with children books that were their favorites as a child to encourage the importance of reading."
In March, the Read In at the Mall project was presented at the North Carolina Council Reading Association (NCRA) conference held in Greensboro, North Carolina. The project recently won the Rotary International Best Cooperative Projects Award for the 2007–2008 year.
"I feel that the Read In is an excellent way for Rotary and IRA to work together to highlight the importance of reading to children," said Canipe. "It demonstrates to the community that we care about the education of all our children and realize that reading is truly the foundation of all learning."
NCRA Regional Director Amy Williams said that Price Reading Council’s partnership with the Rotary Club of Boone represents an ongoing goal of both organizations to promote literacy and cultivate community partnerships. "The saying, ‘It takes a village...’ epitomizes this partnership," she said. "Many people are instrumental in the lives of children so that they become lifelong readers."
An estimated 774 million adults in the world are illiterate, according to recent statistics. Despite many nations’ best efforts to make it possible for every child to get an education, more than 100 million primary school-age children are not in school. Not being able to read or write has a direct bearing on their quality of life today and tomorrow—from health to employment to participation in the political process.
Rotary International, a service organization of 1.2 million service volunteers, and the International Reading Association have pledged to collaborate on a multitude of projects to help people of all ages and in all nations learn to read and write.
Since 2002, a memorandum of understanding between the International Reading Association and Rotary International has existed; it was renewed in 2005. Rotary International has more than 33,000 clubs in nearly 170 countries who conduct an estimated 182,000 projects each year, including projects focusing on polio eradication, international education, peace, and literacy, among others.
Rotary International has long been involved with literacy projects:
"We are always interested in promoting collaboration between Rotary clubs and International Reading Association members, and highlighting project successes is one of the most effective ways to raise awareness," said David Plater, coordinator of Rotary’s Service Support & Awards Department. Here are some of the projects on which Rotary and IRA have collaborated:
The Central Queensland Council of the Australian Literacy Educators’ Association (a national affiliate of IRA) and Rotary District 9570 participated in a collaborative project, Books for Hospitalized Kids. The project resulted from their joint celebration of International Literacy Day in 2007. The groups noticed there were few, if any, collections of contemporary children’s books available in children’s wards. In addition to donating books, a SCRABBLE-a-thon was conducted to raise money for the project. It was a fun event, according to Nea Stewart-Dore, an IRA member and professor at Central Queensland University in Rockhampton, Australia.
In Lombard, Illinois, the Rotary club for the past two years has donated $1,750 to Lombard School District 44, according to Annetta Wesselhoff, literacy coordinator for the district. Each elementary and middle school received $250 to purchase leveled readers for English Language Learners and this year the money will go to buy nonfiction science and social studies leveled readers. "What I enjoy about this community connection is that these are some of the stakeholders in the community, and they do such great community work. We are so appreciative of their literacy grant every year and the community work they do in Lombard and internationally as well," Wesselhoff said.
In Taylor, Michigan, the Wayne County Rotary donated $1,000 to the Sixth Grade Academy to make it possible for students to participate in Poetry Alive! assemblies and workshops, according to Mary Sparkes, a special education reading teacher at the school and an IRA member. Her students had visited a nursing home at Christmas to read poems and perform Readers’ Theater scripts. She hoped the visit by Poetry Alive!, a performance troupe of professionals, would motivate her students to continue the visits and help develop their reading fluency and comprehension. Her students also attended a Rotary meeting to share some poems and their Poetry Alive! experience.
The Lower Mainland Council of IRA (LOMCIRA) in British Columbia has had a "long and wonderful relationship with the local Rotary club," according to Honey Halpern, a literacy consultant and professor at the University of British Columbia. The Rotary club joined together with LOMCIRA in its project called First Visit Books, a book giveaway program for children unlikely to have books at home. Scholastic Canada donated thousands of books to kindergarten teachers who would give them to parents at their first visit to the school in August or September. The Rotary club heard about the program and raised funds to expand the program to grades one through three in designated inner city schools in Vancouver. "It’s been an excellent relationship, one that has benefited many, many children who told me that they still have that very first book," Halpern said.
In Tennessee, the Benton County Rotary Club has been very supportive of literacy projects in our county," said Jenny Miller, president of the Benton County Reading Association, an IRA council. The club has helped with the Read Across America project and also has supported the Imagination Library project begun by Dolly Parton. Free books are provided in the mail each month to children so that at age 5 they have a personal library of 60 books.
Rotary Reading Commando volunteers in Rochester, New York, helped build literacy at Roberto Clemente School 8, where the Rochester Rotary has supported the staff and students for the past 12 years. Roxane Gifaldi, an elementary teacher at the school, said the "commandos" are paired with second through fourth graders and work one-on-one with them each week to help improve reading skills. "The students love the extra attention, and their assessments show good improvement in their reading scores," she said. At the end of each year, participating students are taken to a Barnes & Noble bookstore for a tour, lunch, and to buy books for their personal libraries. Through Literacy for Life, the Rotary club and several other businesses
provide volunteers for Pre-K through second grade. For Pre-K through third grade, the club and other businesses raise money to provide each student with $4 worth of books each month from Scholastic.
The Rotary Club of Red Rock Morning in St. George, Utah, works with Diamond Valley Elementary School to provide leveled books for the school’s guided reading program, according to Michelle M. Truman, staff developer at the school. Also each year, club members present dictionaries to every third-grade student in the school.
Rotary and IRA: On the same team. (August 2008). Reading Today, 26(1), 32–33.
Journals
Reading Today