Are you looking for a literacy project, but you do not know where to begin?
Consider doing the following:
1. Contact Mr. Wil Williamson at w.williamson@sbcglobal.net or call Wil at 773-731-1877. Then arrange for him to tell you about this project which he is promoting in our district.
2. Go to your local Friends of the Library Book Sale and inquire if they would be willing to donate the books left over to your Rotary Club to assist in establishing libraries in public and private schools in Chicago. Contact Fred Otto at 847-698-1160, and he can assist your club in finding a school in Chicago who would be happy to receive age appropriate books.
Chicago O`Hare Helps Kindergartner Teacher
Ms. Geri Widdes has been teaching kindergarten at the Delano Public School in Chicago for 38 years and has never missed a day of school. This is her last year of teaching before she retires. She normally has over forty children in her kindergarten class. This year she only has 34 students.
Fred and Bev Otto met Ms. Widdes at a social gathering for the Chicago O`Hare Rotary Club at the Arlington Race Track in September, and from this conversation has developed a project of giving 60 childrens` books and 24 stuffed animals to Ms. Widdes. Bev Otto mentioned that Ms. Widdes gives her students stuff toys and tells her students that these are their "reading babies." A fellow professor in the Teacher Education department at Northeastern Illinois University was so touched by the story, that she went out and bought the 24 new stuff toys to be given to Ms. Widdes.
Ms. Widdes says that she is looking forward to retiring, for she will net more money on her pension than teaching after she deducts all of the items that she contributes from her pay check to assist her students. Ms. Widdes teaches at the Delano Public School, which is located near Garfield Biological Conservatory on the Chicago West Side.
If your club would like to make a donation of books to children in kindergarten, Fred Otto, District 6450 Community Services Chair can work with your club in getting a Chicago Public School assigned to your club. Dr. Beverly Otto previously conducted a research grant where five books were provided to each kindergarten student in a Chicago Public School, and she later received feedback that in some house holds those were the only books in the home. Also, consider applying for a District Simplified Grant to make your club money go further, and you to can make a difference in a child`s life.
