Westbrook-Gorham Rotary will be participating in Westbrook Together Days this year. We’ll be setting up a “booth” with tables, banner, and signs.  The intent of our booth is to encourage folks to contribute new or gently used children’s books for distribution in the community as part of our upcoming district-wide literacy project.  To encourage those donations, we’ll be giving away various restaurant gift certificates in a drawing. 

 

We are asking members to help obtain gift certificates of any denomination.  If you know a local restauranteur or frequent a local restaurant, please ask if they’ll help.  All levels from fine dining to coffee shops are welcome.  

 

We’ll also plan to have material available that speaks to Rotary and our club available for all who stop by.  

Pam Turner, Library Director at Baxter Memorial Library, joined us on April 28.  She told us about the upcoming summer literacy initiative, Gorham Reads.

 

Baxter Memorial Library, North Gorham Public Library and the School Dept have joined forces to get kids in Gorham reading this summer.   All grades from K-12 are targeted, with a particular focus on K-5.  K-5 kids will receive a back pack that will include a book, library card application and reading list.  It will also include a game card, a kind of literacy bingo with activities to check off.  Each completed card returned will be entered for prizes.

 

The Baxter Library underwent a major expansion in 2003.  They are open 43 hours a week, including hours on Saturday with 6 full time and 5 part time employees.  They currently have about 7500 registered borrowers and an annual budget of $486K, of which $21K is for books.  In addition to books, they also lend DVDs, Blue Ray and Magazines, and have several well-used public computers. If you are not a Gorham resident, you can join for $30 a year per household.  

The current house is coming along nicely with a projected completion date of late fall.  Check out recent photos in the Photo Albums section of our website: http://portal.clubrunner.ca/6948/PhotoAlbums/rotary-house-45 and click on "start slide show".