Rotary District 6920

District Literacy Partnership Announced

We have exciting news! DG Dallas has announced the formation of a partnership between our District and The Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy. Our District hopes to be joined by the other two Georgia Districts to carry this program across Georgia. It’s a hallmark moment for Rotary, The Ferst Foundation and Literacy in Georgia.

Here’s the bottom line – Every Rotary Club EVERYWHERE has been asked to take on a literacy project of some sort – and we’re going to coordinate our clubs across the District and across Georgia!

The project is called The Imagination Library – created by Dolly Parton as a way to get books into the hands of children as early as possible. The program was brought to Georgia by Robin Ferst Howser through the Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy. It works like this: local committees are formed and work to register as many children under age 5 as they can find – through hospitals and doctors, day care centers, and at grocery stores – anywhere you find young children. Then every month until age 5 the child receives a hard-bound age-appropriate book in the mail (like "The Little Engine That Could") – to be their very own – up to 60 books in all! The idea is to encourage mom, dad or a friend to READ to that child.

This project isn’t hard to carry out – it’s a matter of forming a literacy committee – the committee can be from your club, or a joint committee with other clubs in your county or community, and you can include non-Rotarians on the committee (a great way to find future Rotarians). The committee’s job is to find and register kids, provide local news to include in the newsletter written by the Foundation and to find local financial support. The Ferst Foundation sends out the books – writes and sends the newsletter and parent tips. Your job is the easy part! The Ferst Foundation has all the "how to" info you’ll need – there are people to come and explain everything to your club and help you set up - you can get this up and running in a few weeks – it isn’t very expensive - AND we’ve even got some potential funding sources if you live in an area where funds are limited. Nervous about what you’re getting into? Just create the committee and register 10 kids this year, or 5 (we don’t care). Just see how easy it is.

What’s the catch? There isn’t one! This is an easy program for childhood literacy – already succeeding in many counties around Georgia. The Ferst Foundation has significant financial support from corporations and foundations – and with Rotary’s involvement, the doors fly open to additional funding sources. Rotary is needed because it is projected to take The Ferst Foundation five more years to physically set up the program in every one of Georgia’s 159 counties, going, as they are now, one county/community at a time. So, they need a way to reach and teach – to set up committees across Georgia – NOW – not three years from now. They need people who understand and are able to organize. They need people who care about literacy.

They need Rotarians! This is a marriage made in heaven!

Decide your club will explore this project – or commit to make it happen. Call or e-mail one of the people below to ask questions and get answers. Someone will happily come to your club, if you like, to explain everything in detail.

For an overview, go to www.ferstfoundation.org. We can also send you a power point presentation.

That’s the overview, now here’s more.

Approximately 61% of low-income families do not have a single piece of reading material suitable for a child in their home. In Georgia, a third of our children come to school unprepared to learn – and playing "catch up" is very difficult for the child -and their teacher. Seventy-five percent of students who are poor readers in the third grade will remain poor readers in high school. We know where Georgia ranks on the SATs, and one in four adults in Georgia operates at a low literacy level. Low literate workers cost Georgia businesses $7 billion a year.

Educators have identified preschool reading and parent involvement as among the most important steps toward a child’s success in school, and ever-growing research strongly supports that. Children develop much of their capacity to learn in the first three years of life, when their brains grow to 90% of their eventual adult weight. Just as children develop language skills long before being able to speak, they also develop literacy skills long before being able to read. They learn letter names and shapes. They associate sounds with letters. They hear good grammar and a wider vocabulary. They develop familiarity with books. They associate reading with love, and fun, and closeness of a caring adult. The key is to start at birth. To immerse a child in a literacy environment can be a better predictor of literacy and academic achievement than family income. Think about it – we’ve all known - or gone to school with - kids without advantages of money - who nevertheless excelled in school. What made up for the lack of advantages? Usually it was parents who understood the importance of reading and learning to give their children a chance in life. The Ferst Foundation and Rotary can give thousands of children in every community in Georgia that same chance.

So how does it work? You register as many children as you can. Once or twice a year you set up tables at the local grocery – or a convenience store. Leave forms in doctor’s offices – family doctors, pediatricians, the dentist – local child care centers, inner city churches – wherever! Put the form in the newspaper so neighbors can help register a child on their street. Anyone can register with a computer on-line as well. Once the child is in the system – a book is mailed to them each and every month until they are five – up to 60 books in all! "The Little Engine That Could" is the first book each child receives – and "Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come" is the final "graduation" book – sent when the child turns 5. There is even a neat set of book ends to display their own special books. The parents receive a Parent’s Guide with tips on reading aloud with a child. There is also a monthly communication piece – providing a book guide, child activity page, a variety of relevant community literacy announcements and sponsor acknowledgement (i.e. your local Rotary club). Rotary is key to all this because parents normally hesitant to give out a child’s name will KNOW and TRUST Rotary.

What does all this cost? Each book with postage is about $2. So if a child is enrolled at birth, all 60 books and the book ends will run about $150. You can register as many kids as your club/committee can afford –and that’s where several local Rotary clubs creating a joint committee can be a great option - and again, there are probably other funding sources out there to help.

You’ll be hearing a lot more about this project – but you don’t have to wait - to get going now – contact:

*Shauna von Hanstein: Executive Director of The Ferst Foundation and a Rotarian 706-343-0177 (w) 1-888-565-0177 The Ferst Foundation shauna@ferstfoundation.com

*Leland Sanders: Pres. Elect of RC of Effingham County & Bd Member of Ferst Found. (When contacting please indicate you are calling or e-mailing about Rotary) 912-754-6270 (W) 912-826-3551 (H) lsanders@temcor.com

*Leslie Mattingly: Past Pres. of RC of St. Simons Island & involved with Ferst Foundation 912-638-5430 (H) mlmattingly@juno.com

*Joan Puryear: District Literacy Program Chair (H) 706 733-5742 (F) 706 733-5715 Cell: 706 831-3930 joanpuryear@comcast.net