April 2011

It’s the end of April, and the school year is winding down.  It’s been a very good year for our Literacy Program and I’d like to give you some numbers to think about over the summer.

We distributed 2430 books in 135 classrooms in six schools.

All this was done by 27 readers. Obviously, many people read at multiple schools. I would also like to point out that three of the 27 were not Kiwanis members. Two are spouses of members and one is a former member who just loves to read to the children.

Here’s the point of all this: the reading program is our largest project and spends almost $15,000 of our hard-earned money every year. I am eternally grateful to our wonderful volunteers, but, really, are you proud that 24 people carry the whole program?  Please consider signing up in the fall. Talk to any of the following people and you’ll hear the enthusiasm and joy that reading to these children will bring. 

I’d also like to thank the Board and the Foundation for their support and encouragement and for granting me the privilege of being a part of this outstanding project.

Phyllis
Literacy Chair

Readers, Spring 2011

YCPO MATERIALS DELIVERED TO
Dell Children’s-Circle of Care Pediatrics CLINIC
in GEORGETOWN

On April 18^th Don Ballard and Martha Lawlor delivered lots of books to the new Pediatric Clinic on Williams Drive, which is part of the Lone Star Circle of Care.  It’s a very impressive facility; stop in some day as you’re cruising down Williams Drive…they’re happy to show off their wonderful new digs.

Pictured (left to right) are Rebekah Haynes, Director of Communications for Lone Star Circle of Care, Ellen Simms, RN, Site Supervisor for the Dell Children’s Circle of Care Pediatrics Clinic, Martha Lawlor, Sun City Kiwanis member, and Rosa Perez, CMA, Dell Children’s Clinic.

Young Children Priority One (YCPO) has been a focus of Kiwanis International since 1979 when the program was implemented.  The goal of YCPO is to break the poverty cycle by addressing several types of needs of young children from low-income or no-income families.    Studies have shown that youth favorably exposed to early education are more likely to seek out education/training, attend school, complete training programs, receive diplomas, find employment, seek higher education and express job satisfaction than their peers.  They are less likely to be held back in school, drop out of school, become a teen parent, be arrested or exploited.

All Kiwanis Clubs are encouraged to carry out at least two projects every year, focused on children from birth to five years of age.  Our program is closely tied to our Literacy Initiative, aimed at introducing reading skills at every level of a young child’s life.  We have chosen to partner with the Dell Circle of Care Pediatrics Clinic to help us distribute reading-related materials to new parents and children in Georgetown. They have been provided with three types of materials:

• Rock-A-Bye Baby Readers (English) and Despertar a la Lectura (Spanish) (200 each language).  The books emphasize to the parents the importance of reading to young children, and provide illustrated nursery rhymes to read aloud.  The Clinic staff will distribute a book to new parents at the two-week check-up.

• Various hard and soft cover children’s reading books which are remainders from our Literacy Initiative.  The Clinic staff will give them to children when they visit (about 140 books total).

• Tex and Dot Coloring and Activity Books which we received at no cost from TXDOT, featuring safety issues (150 Spanish, 150 English).  We also purchased crayons to be distributed with all of the coloring books by Clinic staff members.

• Buckle up Texas Coloring Book, also provided to us by TXDOT (100 copies).  The book is in English in one direction, and if you turn it over, in Spanish in the other direction.

• Four laminated colorful posters emphasizing the importance of reading to children, for the Clinic to display.

Lyliana Herrera and her mom, Marla are enjoying a “Curious George” book with Rosa Perez, CMA at the clinic.  Rosa is also their Read out and Read coordinator.

December 2010

On December 16, 2010 five intrepid souls traveled to the new Jarrell, TX elementary school to read and give books to 287 children. This marked the end of the Sun City Kiwanis Literacy program for the Fall 2010 semester, during which twenty of our members read to 2,393 children in six schools. We have distributed more than 20,000 books since the program began in 2005, and without the support of many hard-working Kiwanians, we could not have reached this milestone. The budget in 2009-2010 was $14,870 which makes the Literacy Project our club’s biggest commitment.

We’ll repeat the process again in the Spring. It’s hard to describe the feeling you get when you walk into a classroom and the children say “Ooh, it’s the Kiwanis lady”. When you leave, you get hugs, smiles, thank you notes and sometimes, a “standing O”. So, if you haven’t read to the kids yet, please sign up for the next round in April. The 20 people who read this year are all heroes and I can’t begin to thank them enough, but shouldn’t YOU be involved also?

This seems like a good time to say thank you to people who helped in ways other than reading. Bill and Beth Harron have the books shipped to their house. Then they transport the books to our storage unit and unpack, count and stock the shelves. Martha Lawlor and Pat and Gene Cole laid the groundwork for the program and I’m just continuing what they began. Ron and Patsy Becker were there whenever summoned to help label, sack, shlep and read.

Phyllis
Literacy Chair

Kiwanis readers at JarrellKiwanis readers at Jarrell Janet, Norma, Sandy, Barbara & Phyllis the Literacy Chair	Norma reading to Jarrell students
Barbara with Jarrell Santa	Sandy showing book page to Jarrell students
Barbara reading to Jarrell students

November 28, 2010

Members of Sun City Kiwanis read to every child in PK, K, 1st and 2nd grades at the five Title I schools in Georgetown. We read part of the book and then the children are told the book is theirs to take home, keep and share with their families. Attached is a breakdown showing schools and numbers of the books we have distributed. This was for fall '10 and will be repeated in the spring.

Readers - Ginger B, Patsy B, Ron B, Alace G., Beth H., Pat H., Norma H., John H., Lyn L., Randy L., Gerry L., Barbara P., Bill R., Glenda R., Sheri S., Fran S., Sandy S., Phyllis V., Janet W. and Larry W.

The above are just numbers on a page and can't begin to describe the actual program. Our members love to read and the sign-up sheets are usually filled up within five minutes. When we walk into a classroom carrying the book bag, we are greeted with smiles, applause and hugs. After reading we get more of the same and that's usually followed with thank-you notes and drawings, sometimes in Spanish. I always say it is a labor of love and I'm very proud to chair this wonderful program and to be a member of Kiwanis Club of Sun City Georgetown which supports the program in every way.

Phyllis
Literacy Chair

A Note From John Hopper

I have been a part of the Kiwanis Club of Sun City Georgetown Reading Initiative for the past several years. As most of you probably know, in cooperation with the Georgetown ISD, we take age appropriate books to various Elementary schools and have the opportunity to read portions of the books to Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1^st & 2^nd grade students. After getting acquainted a little with the students, we encourage them to take the books home and finish reading them with their families.

Is this fun? YOU BET. It does my heart good to see the students eyes light up when they find out that the books are theirs to keep. It has also been my good fortune to have one student recognize me from a prior reading time and come over to give my legs s hug. For others like me whose Grand-Children are a distance away I think you will feel as I do that something like this will MAKE YOUR DAY.

I encourage all who are so inclined to get signed up with Phyllis Vogel and get the rewards of reading to the children.

March 12, 2010

As of this morning the spring 2010 reading season in Georgetown has ended. The children are off on spring break next week and our intrepid Kiwanis readers have earned a break also. We had 20 readers who visited 122 classrooms in five schools and distributed approximately 2300 books to children in Pre-K, Kindergarten, first and second grades.  Reading at Jarrell will be scheduled soon after Easter.

We get smiles, hugs, thank-you notes and a lovely warm feeling in every classroom in every school. Twenty readers are much appreciated but this is only a small percentage of our membership. This is our biggest project with a $20,000 annual budget. Shouldn’t you be a part of it? An appeal will go out again in the fall for readers. Please consider joining us even if only in one school for one hour.

Every reader is a hero and this project would not work without the dedication and caring of many people. Special recognition goes to Bob High who reads at every single school. A personal thank you to Ron Becker who reads, labels, sacks and, as his latest project, has decorated our storage locker with the many thank-you notes we’ve received.

Lastly, I would like to thank the Kiwanis membership and board for allowing me the privilege of chairing this project. It is truly a labor of love.

Phyllis Vogel

December 2008

KIWANIS READS! BENEFITS 2300 GEORGETOWN AND JARRELL STUDENTS

“I can really keep it?” “Can I take it home?” “What if I get jelly on it—do I have to pay for it?”  The answers were “yes”, “yes”, and “no” to these questions from the local schoolchildren who received books as part of our Club’s Kiwanis Reads! program.  During the month of November, 26 Kiwanis members read in 139 classrooms to over 2300 Head Start, Pre-K, Kindergarten, First and Second grade students who attend Title I schools in Georgetown and Jarrell Incorporated School Districts.

Each Kiwanis reader is the guest of an assigned classroom and once welcomed by the teacher and children, reads a portion of a book selected for the grade level.  When the reading is finished, each child is then given a copy of the same book to keep for themselves – and encouraged to continue the reading of the story on their own.  These books become treasured possessions for these students and play a significant role in expanding their love for reading.  For many of them, reading is a skill still being mastered and they take great pride in understanding more about their world through the window that our books provide.

The Kiwanis Reads! literacy effort takes place twice each school year – in the Fall and Spring.  Between November 5 and 20 of this year, we had readers out at Cooper, Frost, Purl, Mitchell, Head Start and Jarrell elementary schools.  Our three top readers:  John Hopper, Bob High, and Phyllis Vogel read for a combined total of 35 classes!  We also had four new members reading for their very first time:  Patsy Hoover, Glenda Rosenberg, Janet Warren, and Gary Goodfriend.  Thanks to these members for diving right in!

In Spring 2009, we hope to reach out to even more young students.  However, we’ll only be able to grow the program with the continuing and expanded support of our Kiwanis members.  Besides the classroom time, we also need volunteers to sack, label and haul books, handle the communications piece, and coordinate scheduling.  Every member is encouraged to contribute to the success of Kiwanis Reads!

As our Club’s largest Service project by far, Kiwanis Reads! is also the recipient of our largest budget allocation.  Our financial support and the mobilized commitment of dozens of our Kiwanis volunteers is making a difference for the children in our community and an investment in the adults they are on the path to become.  Thank you for all you’ve done – and please consider becoming even more involved with the Spring 2009 Kiwanis Reads! program.

November 2007

On November 1^st Club members distributed our 10,000^th book, at Annie Purl Elementary School.  Purl is a large school with 43 classrooms of children in grades Pre-K through Second.  It was quite a sight to see the Kiwanians buzzing around the schools, looking for their classrooms to read and distribute the books to the children.  They had maps and monitors to direct us through the twists and turns of the hallways.

Photo:  Brian Dawson, Principal at Annie Purl Elementary School, presents a plaque to Martha Lawlor on Nov. 1, 2007.

The school staff arranged coffee and doughnuts for the 18 Kiwanians who were there to deliver 750 books.  The Art teacher worked with the students to create a ten-foot poster to thank us for our efforts, which featured book spines on which the children wrote their names.  Principal Brian Dawson spoke to the group and presented a Thank You plaque to our Club.  Acting Superintendent of Schools, George Garver, was there, congratulating us on our efforts.

The project began in the Fall of 2005.  Last year we spent 35% of the $41,000 we raised on our Literacy Initiative, making it our largest service project.  It fits right in with our Kiwanis International motto, “A global organization dedicated to changing the world, one child and one community at a time”.  Based upon the recommendations of the Reading/Literacy specialists on the GISD staff, we deliver two books per child per year to the students in the lower grades in Title I schools in Georgetown.  These are the formative years for developing and building reading skills. 

Research demonstrates that having access to a wide variety of reading materials is essential if a child is to grow and develop into a strong reader. The majority of children from low-income families have no books at all in their homes or classrooms, and as a result, direct access to books is extremely limited for these children. 

We are in the process of selecting book titles for our next distribution which will begin in late January and early February.  We work with Librarians in the schools to choose the books we give to the children.  The hardworking committee members include ‘pickers’ who store the books in their garage and pack them up in plastic bags for each classroom (Don Siler, Jack Akin, Paul Golay and Pat McCaslin), schedulers who sign up volunteers to read (Sharon Perdue, Pat Harron and Beth Winship) and Geoff Martin, who finalizes the master schedule, and sends out reminder emails to the volunteers.  Martha Lawlor is the committee chair, and is the liaison with the school system for arranging dates and selecting titles.

January 2007

‘BOOKS FOR BABIES’ KITS DELIVERED TO GEORGETOWN CIRCLE OF CARE PEDIATRICS CENTER

Recently we delivered 400 Books for Babies kits to the Georgetown Circle of Care Pediatric Center.  The kits will be distributed to parents of newborns at the two week check-up appointment.  The Clinic averages one birth per day. 

Four of our members visited the Clinic to make the presentation, including photographer Bill Harron.  Betty Darling, Literacy Committee member, Kent Buikema, Foundation President, and Neil Daly, Club President presented the kits to Dr. Natacha Pankratz , Associate Medical Director and Pediatrician at the  GT Circle of Care Pediatric Center, and Linda Wasson, a nurse at the Pediatric Center.

Our members also had an opportunity to present a Books for Babies kit to new parents, Chad and Melissa Votruba, and new baby Mariah.

The Books for Babies kits are distributed by the Friends of the Libraries USA; it is a nationwide literacy program that acquaints parent of newborns with the important role that they play in the development of their children.  Literacy development begins at birth and is closely linked to a baby’s earliest experiences with books and stories.  Early literacy is the natural development of skills through the enjoyment of books, the importance of interactions between babies and parents, and the critical role of literacy-rich experiences. 

Published in English and Spanish, the kits include the board book Peek-A-Boo by Roberta Grobel Intrater, Baby’s first Library Card, Babies Love Books:  A guide for Grown-ups booklet, Barbara Bush’s Family Reading Tips brochure, a Bookmark with Reading Tips for Parents, The ABC’s for Developing Your Child’s Mind brochure, and Raising a Reader, Raising a Writer brochure.

Our Club also presented the Pediatrics Center with nearly 200 copies of a Sesame Street board book, which the staff will present to young visitors to the clinic.

This is the fourth year that the Sun City Kiwanis Club has delivered Books for Babies kits to the Clinic.  The project is part of their Literacy Initiative which has delivered free books to children in Title I schools in the GISD.

October 2006

On Thursday, Oct. 25^th eight Kiwanians swarmed into Carver Elementary school early in the morning to read to the little kids in Pre-K, First and Second grades.  An hour later they left, having presented a new book to 323 children to take home for their very own.  Our Club has budgeted $10,000 for purchasing books during this school year.  Our objective is to improve the literacy rate in economically deprived children in our community.  We work exclusively with the Title I schools in Georgetown.

This year we are again giving ‘The Adventures of Syd Hoff’, to the First graders, and a new title, ‘Dinosaurs After Dark’, to the Second graders.  The Pre-K children received ‘Cookie Rhyme, Cookie Time’.

We will return to deliver a second book to these children in late January or early February.  Here is the schedule for the fall delivery of books:

Nov. 2             Cooper Elementary      

Nov. 9             Annie Purl Elementary

Nov. 16           Jack Frost Elementary

We still need Kiwanians to read at Purl and Frost.  Please consider giving an hour of your time to this fun and rewarding project.  You’ll have a big smile on your face when you walk out the door of the school, guaranteed.  Ask your spouse or a friend to join you.  One person can read, the other can hold a copy of the book and show the pictures to the children.  Please call Pat Harron (864 0965) or Beth Winship (869 5950) if you would like to volunteer.

Thanks to these Kiwanians who delivered books at Carver school:

John Hopper

Gerry Lesseps

Randy Lesseps

Pat and Gene Cole

Joe Newman

Nancy Newman

Phyllis Vogel

Bob High

Thanks also go to Pat Harron and Beth Winship who do the scheduling, Betty Darling who sends out the information and schedules to the volunteers, Pat McCaslin and Don Siler who pack the books for delivery (Don is also our Inventory Manager), Barbara Picone and Joe Razek who are letting us store books in their garages, and Martha Lawlor, committee chair.

April 2006

LITERACY INITIATIVE DELIVERS 1700 BOOKS TO GEORGETOWN KIDS

Through March over 60 of our Club members have participated in our Literacy Initiative by delivering books to children in the GISD and the Head Start programs.  Focused on Title I schools which have the highest percentages of low income students, the Initiative hopes to improve literacy by placing books into the hands of children for them to take home.  We delivered books to four Georgetown schools in grades Pre-K, Kindergarten and First grades, and also to two Head Start programs. 

We also delivered 375 Books for Babies kits in both English and Spanish to the Lone Star Circle of Care (formerly the Georgetown Community Clinic).  Clinic staffers present a kit to the parents of newborns at the infants’ two week check-up.  In addition to a board book, the kits contain information for the parents about the importance of reading to their children and a first library card.

Recently our Club received a $500 grant from First Book-Central Texas and Borders Bookstores.  The grant will be used to purchase books for children in  3^rd, 4^th and 5^th grades in the Title I schools in Georgetown.  The recipients will be selected by the school librarians using criteria such as most improved reader, or most books read.  They will be presented at year end assemblies.

Book deliveries will begin when school starts next Fall.  We hope that you’ll join us in this fun project!