30 January 2020
Buckets on the Table: Rescue Relief for Australia
Speaker of the Day: Tina Chapman, Rhoda Reads -Early Literacy Program
A past president of Waterville Rotary, Tina has started an exciting Early Literacy project that she has been running for the last 8 years. It has been measured that poverty levels and literacy coordinate with ability to do well in school. In 2012, community leaders met to discuss literacy in the Waterville area, Rotary was a part of this discussion, and partnered with a local early literacy program that trained Rotarians how to read to kids. Sounds easy, right? There is more to reading to kids than you think. Club members put together a toolkit for the Rotary volunteers working with kids between ages 0-5. A mascot of a little owl was chosen, named Rhoda! They reached out to child care areas in the community and matched Rotarians with providers and began the process! Many district grants were obtained for this program. Barbara Walsh, a Maine writer, and Abby Greig, an illustrator, were commissioned to write a book for this Rotary project. The book sells on amazon and proceeds go back to club. The book has been translated into French (as Waterville is a bilingual district). Each district club gets a toolkit. The program was expanded to elementary aged kids and a new set of books were received. This theme is an older adult and younger child mentoring relationship. They have also partnered with an after school program and ordered 200 books for book give away for these kids. Now there is a costume for one to wear and greet the kids. What’s next, translate into Spanish! They have also placed little free libraries in the Waterville area.
Committee Reports:
Rotary info, Sandy- exchanging of banners- in the 50s, clubs exchanged banners during visits and RI then started this process across the system in 1959. The banners tell a story about the area of the club. We can’t find our banners right now! We have compass settings around the rotary wheel. Need a sewing party to make a new banner panel to display all the other banners we have received!
Chili Challenge Feb 8th! Need a few more for later shift!
Parking – looking warm this year! Need 4 more spots to fill on Sunday!
Painting on Ira’s house 9-12 on Saturday
Next Week’s Speaker: Club Assembly