Twin Cities Rotary & Literacy L S McGee 2015 DLTA

Literacy Projects Rotary Literacy Corner at Valley View Health Center GED program with Lewis County Literacy Council Reach Out and Read program with Northwest Pediatric Ugandan library in a multi-club project led by Longview Early Edition National Geographic Science Reader

Rotary Literacy Corner at Valley View Health Center Valley View Health Center is a group of rural health centers providing medical and dental services to primarily a low-income demographic Provides over 50,000 patient visits per year The Rotary Literacy Corner provides books and puzzles for young patients Rotarian Steve Clark, Executive Director of VVHC, conceived the idea Corner funded by all three clubs, built and decorated by Twin Cities Books are purchased new, used, bartered or donated and cleaned by volunteers. The three local Clubs started, Twin Cities has funded about $1000/ yr. Approximately 2,000 books per year are given

General Educational Development (GED) program with Lewis County Literacy Council (LCCC) 2009 Passing the GED is considered high school equivalency in US and Canada “Empowering adults for workforce and educational achievement through free literacy services” for over 44 years LCCC Director Keith Blackwell a member of Twin Cities Rotary LCCC operates with volunteer tutors Approximately 50 individuals per year achieve the GED Computerized testing also requires training. Rotary helps fund the $125 test cost Support has averaged about $1,000 per year

Reach Out and Read at Northwest Pediatric Reach Out and Read (ROR) is a USA non-profit founded in 1989 Founded by pediatricians "encourage parents to read regularly to their children and give them the tools (the books) to do so.“ ROR makes literacy promotion a part of pediatric primary care Dr Lily Lo wanted to start ROR in our community Twin Cities Rotary provided $2,500 seed money via matching funds and helped to build momentum

Ugandan Adult Literacy project A project led by Longview Early Edition Club which included Longview Noon, Kelso, Woodland and Twin Cities clubs and Makindye in Uganda Focused on Namugoona, a community hear Kampala, Uganda Multi-faceted project, Twin Cities provided books in English for library English and Swahili are the official languages So far this has been only a one time investment of $1,250 on the part of Twin Cities

National Geographic Young Explorer Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) are increasingly being emphasized Successfully piloted the delivery of this special child’s edition to a small school where the spouse of a Rotarian teaches Expanded and offered to all 1,500 kindergartners and first graders in Lewis County for three years. Labeled every reader with a sticker to indicate the magazines were from Rotary Club funds and District Community Grant have provided about $12,000

Twin Cities Rotary approach We execute a portfolio of projects each year with no single large item Fundraising is also a portfolio of activities with no single major activity Cooperation with Centralia and Chehalis for fourteen years to conduct the TriClub Rotary Auction has generated over ½ million dollars net Education; literacy; The Rotary Foundation; animal husbandry in S. America; and healthcare are areas of ongoing focus for Twin Cities Rotary We like to provide seed money to try new ideas and support startups