As far as dance partners go, COVID certainly continues to have us pivoting. Yet clubs throughout District 5020 have championed literacy and education.
Rotarians proved they are multi-dimensional as a variety of projects were implemented. Here is a sampling of ideas from last year’s award winners. Please check in with the clubs mentioned if you would like clarification on any projects.
Many Free Little Libraries were built, Tacoma 8planned ongoing stewardship on a rotating basis of their twelve libraries.
Courtenay and Tacoma 8 filled bookshelves with free books in a range of environments, from elementary schools, college campuses, and food banks. Sooke was busy with cleaning and donating used computers locally and abroad. Olympia provided Birthday Bags and backpacks to children in shelters.
Tacoma Sunrise continued to sponsor the Ocean Fest Youth Story Contest.
Sooke explored financial, physical, environmental, and computer literacies.
Presenters educated Rotarians on a diversity of topics.
Merritt Long presented his story, My View from the Back of the Bus, about growing up in the segregated south.
Past District Governor, Tom Carroll spoke about self-publishing and the writing process. Olympia hosted, Justice Writing and Readers are Leaders.
Books were gifted to outgoing Board members and donated to reading organizations. Gateway Past President Janine Ezell created a “President’s Project” whereby she chose a book a month to recognize that month’s focus, for example, Black History Month and Autism Awareness Month. When Gateway was donating books to an elementary school, they worked with school’s librarian to ensure a broad selection.
Sadly, this year a need to provide comfort books for children in transition started to weave its way into clubs’ reports. When I asked how these books were chosen, Kathleen Figetakis from Tacoma Sunrise said she read them individually before giving them to the shelter. From this comment, an idea was born. In the coming year, to assist clubs in providing appropriate books without having to read each one, we will be building a list that addresses specific issues so that each club does not have to re-invent the wheel, even though as Rotarians, we love wheels.
District 5020 website is in the process of being updated. Soon we hope to have the literacy and education section available. Here you will find many ideas on how your club can champion literacy with a variety of projects.
