Two recent grants by the Prestonwood Rotary Club Foundation have added to the club‘s long-standing dedication toward helping children throughout Dallas.
- The first grant of $2,500 went to Garland’s Recreation Outreach Center (ROC) for the purchase of supplies to benefit the youngest and smallest members of the community.
The grant helps in buying, stocking, and distributing baby formula, water, baby food, diapers, and wipes to families with infants and toddlers who ROC is helping. Recipients receive the food and other baby items at ROC’s building at 3375 Edgewood in Garland. ROC also has staff members available to assist families who need further guidance.
Metro Family Ministries, Inc. is the governing agent for ROC and is available to anyone of any religious affiliation.
- Making it ‘quieter’ at McShan Elementary School: The Prestonwood Rotary Foundation also made a $2,000 grant to DISD’s Lee McShan Elementary School for a unique purpose: The funds will be used to buy noise cancelling headphones for first and second grade students.
These children are being tutored in reading by individual video calls. The headphones will be plugged into laptops and Chromebook tablets at the students’ homes as restrictions for physical contact continue in Dallas schools.
Several Prestonwood Rotary Club members have shifted their volunteer tutoring from in-person instruction to “virtual” tutorials, so the headphones have become an essential part of the curriculum.
Many of these students had been tutored throughout late spring of 2020 and through the summer in their homes and will continue to be tutored in that manner after the school year begins. It is anticipated that after regular school sessions begin, the tutoring will continue with many students in their classrooms. They will be in a part of the room being tutored over their laptops and tablets, while other students are in another part of the room engaged in other activities.
This grant was organized with the cooperation of the Vickery Meadow Youth Development Foundation, which has a close working relationship with McShan Elementary School.