2016-17 Literacy project

We were called on very early by Sycamore Lane as they had an opportunity to work with Indigo books and get an additional 20% of value for their spend. This meant that our donation of $500 stretched even further than previous years and the school could increase library resources early in the school year. Here Ron Zwaagstra presents our cheque.

At the same time we started our support of The Bedford and Sackville Learning Network. This organisation supports adult learners aged 19+. Some learners are improving Math or English to help pass entrance exams to join the military or train as a first responder. Some are working towards their GED, as they did not graduate high school, and some work one-to one with tutors to improve basic literacy skills that were not supported when they were at school. At the start of the school year we flooded Sackville, Waverley, Fall River and Bedford with rack cards in local businesses to attract new Students.

At Christmas we did one of our favourite things and cooked lunch for as many students as could attend to thank them for their hard work so far and wish them well in future studies and work. This was a lively fun event, with pizza sandwiches, chilli, nibbles and dessert. It was fortunate that Freemans gave us some take out containers as everyone was laden down with leftovers!

We have also given the organisation a donation of $500 to help their budget stretch a little bit further, and one of our members is contributing to their tutor training programme.

Our Elementary Schools and their students were very happy to receive their dictionaries again this year. A coordinated team effort meant that every school received their books on the same day in November, so students had access to them much earlier in the school year.

We are grateful to the Rotary Foundation, our own charity which helped us with a grant of $1500 and we are looking to fundraise early in 2017 to support the continuation of this project in 2017 -18.