Reading With Rotary Sparks Imagination

Earlier this year, Murrumburrah-Harden Rotary secured a Rotary Foundation Grant of $5000 to be used to forge a personal connection with the local schools and their primary-aged students in the hope of encouraging improvement in reading and literacy.

Local Rotarian, Rita O’Connor said an age-appropriate reading book was purchased for each child attending the two primary schools.

“The books were delivered to the schools in a one-hour session where we introduced Rotary, its aims and functions and why we felt reading was important,” Ms O’Connor said.

“This was received very positively by the children, their families, the schools and the wider community, who appreciated the books and the interest we took in the local schools.”

The Rotarians made themselves available for weekly book readings every Wednesday afternoon for six weeks at the Harden Library, which actually saw an increase in the number of children attending the library.

Representatives from among the children from each class attended a Rotary meeting to talk about why they had selected the books they had, what they enjoyed about them and to say thank you.

During the holidays Rotary hosted a small book fair, where children took their completed reading logs and were given a small encouragement prize of a pen, eraser or similar item.

Rotary then purchased another two books per student, with some assistance from Big W staff who gave excellent discounts and contacted the group when the new range of reading material arrived.

“Children were keen to tell us how many books they had read and show us their log books,” Ms O’Connor said.

“We were also able to purchase a book prize per class as an encouragement award for a particular child, as selected by their teachers.”

“The principal of the public school praised the program, saying she had seen the first lot of books circulating the classrooms and recognised the Rotary sticker in the front of them.”

“If we improve the literacy of just one child then we will have achieved our aim.”

Ms O’Connor thanked the schools on behalf of Murrumburrah-Harden Rotary for receiving their project with open arms and for helping students make the best choice of book for their reading ability.

• Topics:

• Literature
• Rotary
• Community