Hello From District 6330 Literacy Chair 2012-2013

Rotary clubs across District 6330 are passionate about literacy. In 2011-2012, 34 clubs received District awards and 19 received Zone awards as well. Congratulations to all!

As we begin the Rotary year 2012-2013, I would like to introduce myself, Sue Storie, as your new District Literacy Chair and encourage you to keep up the momentum. In upcoming posts you will see more information about the Literacy Awards and how YOUR club can earn them.

Clubs are encouraged to salute International Literacy Day, September 8, in your club meetings of the week of September 8. Perhaps you will invite a speaker or will have an event involving reading to children. Perhaps you will partner with your local library or literacy group. September is New Generations Month, so you may wish to involve your Interact clubs. Email me your ideas and I will be happy to share them on the blog.

Would you like me to visit your club or Area Meeting and talk about literacy? Contact me at sue.storie@sympatico.ca

Tell me about your plans for literacy this year. Clubs are encouraged to send me information about your projects and I will be sharing them through The Bridge and through this Literacy Blog
http://rotary6330literacy.blogspot.ca/ created by David Harvie, District 6330 Literacy Chair 2011-2012 . Thank you David for this blog and for all of your work last year which promoted literacy!

I look forward to learning more about our District Literacy events and about all of my fellow Rotarians who share my passion for literacy!

“Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope” 2001, Kofi Annan

District 6330 Conference 2012 - Literacy Displays

Librarians

Librarians are fighting a never-ending war on ignorance, intolerance, despair and the darkness of the human soul. You can join the fight by picking up a book and reading to a child.

Literacy Awards

The following Clubs received literacy awards from District Governor Joseph Reynolds at the District 6330 Rotary Conference in Frankenmuth, Michigan on Saturday June 2, 2012.


District Level Awards for 5 Literacy Projects

Aylmer Rotary Club

Clio Rotary Club

Festival City Rotary Club

Fort Gratiot Rotary Club 

Goderich Rotary Club

Grand Bend Rotary Club

Hanover Rotary Club

London East Rotary Club

London South Rotary Club

Marysville Rotary Club

Port Elgin Rotary Club

Sarnia Bluewaterland Rotary Club

Southampton Rotary Club

Stratford Rotary Club

Tara Rotary Club

District and Zone Level Awards for 10 Literacy Projects

Chesley Rotary Club

Burton Rotary Club

Flushing Rotary Club

Genesee Valley Rotary Club

Hepworth-Shallow Lake Rotary Club

Listowel Rotary Club

London Rotary Club

London Hyde Park

London North Rotary Club

London South Rotary Club

London West Rotary Club

Markdale Rotary Club

Meaford Rotary Club

Mitchell Rotary Club

St. Marys Rotary Club

Sarnia Rotary Club

Watford Rotary Club

Walkerton Rotary Club

Wiarton Rotary Club

Congratulations to all Clubs on their work to promote literacy within their local communities and around the world.

Literacy is Alive and Well in St. Marys

Rotarians Terry Pook (R) and Linda Schuyler (L)
present the Story of Polio to the Grades 4-6 of
the Little Falls School in St. Marys. 

By Linda Schuyler, Rotary Club of St. Marys

While organizing our two month long Polio awareness campaign, we realized that a very big part of this campaign would be to provide a lot of education about the story of Polio and Rotary’s involvement. We believed that many of the children and quite possibly their parents may not be familiar with this story.

We felt that this story could fall into many categories but we wanted to tell why we felt this campaign fit the Literacy category on many levels through the school system, the media and our ‘Purple Pinkie-End Polio Now’ event.

We met with the principals of the local public and High Schools as we were asking for permission to share the story of Polio and Rotary’s involvement with the students in Grades 4 through to High School.

We made presentations at three schools. I told the story of Polio and Rotarian Terry Pook showed some slides of her experiences during National Immunization Days (NIDs) in India and South Africa. We showed the students a wonderful CD titled “Vaccines Save Lives” narrated by Bill Gates while a cartoonist draws the story as he speaks. After each presentation, we held a mini NID. A number of Rotarians and their spouses who are members of Inner Wheel helped to paint the pinkie finger of each student with a purple marker as a symbol of one child immunized from polio. Each school was provided with a class set of comic-style books “The Amazing Stories of Polio” which the teachers and students will use throughout the year.

For six weeks we published a different article about Polio every week in the local newspaper. When we held our ‘Purple Pinkie-End Polio Now’ event, we had three guest speakers. Rotarian Terry Pook showed slides and spoke about her NID experiences. A polio survivor spoke of the challenges he has faced throughout his life and that he has never allowed polio to prevent him from enjoying life. Our keynote speaker reinforced the importance of commitment, compassion and hope.

The reason that I am telling you about our ‘Purple Pinkie-End Polio Now’ event is because of the impact this event had on the granddaughter of one of our Rotarians. She is a Grade 8 student from the Toronto area. She was so inspired by the information that was shared that evening. Shortly after returning home, she was given an assignment to write about someone who has changed Canada. She chose to write about her grandfather and Rotary and how they are making the world a better place one step at a time.

Her essay was selected to be entered into a competition. We do not know the result of the competition but we are certain that she will be a future foreign exchange student and Rotarian to continue her grandfather’s legacy.

District 6330 Assembly - Literacy Presentation

Click here to see the literacy presentation given at the District 6330 Assembly on April 21, 2012 in Sarnia, Ontario.

Telling Stories

As Neil Gaiman points out in his poem entitled "Locks":

"We owe it to each other to tell stories, as people simply"

Telling stories is one of the most human of activities.

Celebrate Literacy Month - Read a Banned Book!

Celebrate Rotary Literacy Month and your freedom to read by reading a Banned Book! The following books have been challenged or banned in both Canada and the United States:

The Harry Potter Series by J.K Rowling

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriett Beecher Stowe

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

1984 by George Orwell

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

March is Literacy Month

How is your Rotary Club celebrating Literary Month?

Here are a few ideas for Clubs passionate about literacy:

• Create Awareness 
• Schedule a speaker on a literacy topic for a regular meeting.
• Present a literacy award or recognition at a regular meeting.  Recognize teachers, librarians or civic leaders who promote the literacy within your community.
• Sponsor a newspaper radio or TV advertisement or billboard about Rotary's work with literacy.
• Undertake a literacy project (This blog is filled with ideas).
• Recruit a new member who is passionate about literacy.
• Qualify for the District Literacy Award – 5 literacy activities required or the Zone Literacy Award - 10 literacy activities.
• Initiate the club’s literacy project planning process for 2012-2013 
• Celebrate the club’s literacy project successes during 2011-2012

Fight Evil - Read a Book.

London East Dictionary Project

J.P. Robarts Public School

On December 13th at Lorne Avenue Public School in London, Ontario, Rotary Clubs completed distribution of  902 dictionaries in east London and Dorchester, to Grade 3 pupils and school staff.  All were well received at the 15 Public and 9 Catholic schools involved. The above picture is of London East Vice-President Bob Mann, with excited pupils at J. P. Robarts Public School.  This was a part of a city-wide District 6330 Area 4 project in 2011, which saw almost 5,200 Grade 3 (and some English as a Second Language) students receive a dictionary. This follows on 1,500 books in 2009 and almost 3,000 in 2010. The Canadian edition of A Student's Dictionary and Gazetteer has been well received in the schools as it also covers our history, politics and geography - and our spelling!

ESL Students with their Dictionaries 

The project was led by ADG Doug Burnard (London North) and Rotarian Sue Storie (Hyde Park) and the support of a District 6330 Simplified Grant. This year over 2,400,000 dictionaries have been donated to Grade 3 pupils in North America via The Dictionary Project in South Carolina.

Lorne Avenue Public School

Submitted by: 
Jim Blair, Chair
Community Service Committee, 
Rotary Club of London East

Literacy Surveys Say...

Recent surveys by Ipsos Reid Research reveals:

• 6 out of 10 (62%) Canadian Parents say They'd like to Spend More Time Helping Their Child Learn at Home. (January 10, 2012).
• 9 out of 10 (90%) Canadians 'Agree' that Improving Literacy Levels in Canada is Key to Improving the Country's Economy. (August 18, 2010).
• Three quarters (72%) of Working Canadians Believe that Current Levels of Adult Literacy in Canada are a Problem. (June 23, 2009).

Source: Ipsos Reid Research

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

A story about the people who devote their lives to books and the books who return the favour.  One of five animated short films nominated in 2011 for an Academy Award.

Books have always been the place where you can rediscover your dreams when the world has stolen them from you.

Rotary International Afghanistan School

Canadian Rotarians have been building a school in Afghanistan. Watch the video, buy a bracelet, download the song, and find out more about this project at www.AfghanistanSchool.ca.

Comic Books - Literacy's Magic Bullet.

Comic books are a way to inspire a passion for reading in both children and adults. Comics have traditionally had a bad reputation among educators as "junk food for the brain".

Comics are a diverse, misunderstood medium that, for too long, have been the dirty little secret of the literary world. From the immigrant who learns English by reading Superman comics to the child who develops a love of literature from the Spiderman, comics have kept kids reading for decades with fantastic tales, well structured stories and amazing fantasies.

Rotary Clubs might wish to consider launching comic book literacy projects in conjunction with their local schools. They are relatively cheap at about $2 per issues and easily obtained in most communities. 

Room To Read

Room to Read is an international organization that works in collaboration with communities and local governments in developing countries to develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children. Its programs supports girls' education, school libraries, book publishing, school construction, reading and writing instruction.  to complete secondary school with the life skills they’ll need to succeed in school and beyond. They are currently active in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zambia.


Rotary Clubs looking for literacy projects might consider further investigating Room To Read at www.roomtoread.org.