President's message . 35 of 52

President’s Message

35 of 52.  

March is Literacy Month in Rotary.  And as we go into this month Chris Vowell has had a vocational meeting where our dictionary project was discussed.

Each year the four Tri Cities Rotary Clubs combine their resources to give each child in Grade Four a dictionary.  This has been championed by Steve Witiuk in our club and we have delivered them in September/October with a message of the Four Way Test.

While we were in Montreal, Past President Ron Baker and I had lunch with a Rotarian from Detroit.  He explained that their club was working with literacy issues there in Detroit.  He explained that when Motor City was booming people were getting well-paying jobs making cars on the production line and did not need to know how to read and write.  Kids would quit school to make good money in the plants and follow in their parents/grandparents footsteps.  But of course the economy has changed and to apply for jobs outside the industry they need to have literacy skills.  Their Rotary Club is supporting such education projects there.  These are not places we immediately think about as having literacy problems because of the industrial affluence that has been apparent there for many decades.  But that façade of boats, trucks and snow machines in the front driveways has dissolved with the downturn.

While my son Alan was in the Northwest Territories in a small village of less than 200 he found he was one of the most educated.  The average literacy levels in these communities are about grade five or six.  They learn hunting and fishing skills and can live off the land.  Their ability to read and write at a higher level is often very limited.

We have the opportunity to help within our own community by supporting the reading program we do at Moody and Seaview Elementary Schools.  It is a very satisfying  program to see the success the children have reading age appropriate books in their libraries.

And of course we have to mention the Grahamstown South Africa project championed by Isy.  We are ensuring many children and adults can learn to read.  The project has adults learning how to teach children to read.  A train the trainer program.  

Our commitment locally and internationally is Building Communities, Bridging Continents

Nick