Rotary clubs have become Community Champions and have partnered with All District Reads to distribute 100,000 books in South Hampton Roads in the last 2 years! This literacy program is very simple. Once a school division decides to participate, then every elementary student receives 2 FREE children's novels to take home and enjoy night after night, chapter by chapter, with all their schoolmates. This is home-based and led by local Rotary clubs, with a Rotary sticker in each book. It occurs across all elementary schools in a school division. It ends up being a fun division-wide children's book club. “It’s exciting to reach this milestone in just two years—giving 100,000 books to start literacy fires in homes,” said All District Reads Founder and Rotarian Gary Anderson.All elementary families in Suffolk Public Schools read School Days According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney, while elementary families across Norfolk Public Schools read Frindle by Andrew Clements. Families of students in Portsmouth Public Schools shared the Adventures of Cleo Edison Oliver, Playground Millionaire by Sundee T. Frazier. An audio version accompanies the paperback version so the whole family can listen together as an option. Rotary clubs meet and place Rotary stickers in all 100,000 of the FREE books. It's a win for the children and their families and for the whole community.
The mission of All District Reads is to partner with public school districts and communities to foster family literacy. All District Reads partners with schools, Rotary Clubs, and participating communities to encourage reading aloud in households and classrooms of all Kindergarten through 5th-grade students, with special advantages for low-income students. The ADR reading program provides a shared reading experience within homes to promote literacy and create a passion for reading.Children born into poverty face numerous challenges, including a deficiency in literacy skills. Research indicates that children raised in households with books gain a significant edge compared to those who do not have access to books.
To learn more about how your club or district can replicate this program, contact Gary Anderson at garya50@aol.com.