Rotary International District 5170

The Rotary Reading Challenge

The Rotary Club of Newark has sponsored an annual reading challenge within its community since the 1997-98 Academic Year. This community wide literacy effort has involved both public and private elementary school students and is hoping to include both junior high and high school students in the not too distant future. The Newark Rotary Reading Challenge received the District 5170 Community Service Significant Achievement Award in 2001 and the California Reading Association's 2001 Adult Literacy Partnership Award. The implementation model is an easy one to follow and consists of:

1. Approaching public and private schools within your community to determine if they are interested in you exploring funding to recognize students who read at home with a free book.
2. If the answer is yes then propose the challenge to your club and secure funding. The challenge is for students to read as many minutes in four consecutive evenings as they wish at home with minutes read being verified by parents. The class with the greatest average number of minutes read over the four evenings is the school winner. Students in this classroom will then receive a free paperback book provided by your Rotary Club. Cost per book for the 2001-2002 Newark Rotary Reading Challenge was $3.73 (books are purchased at a 43 % discount and if delivered to one location no shipping or handling is charged). Assuming 30 students in the winning classroom the cost per school would be $112.00
3. If your club approves the proposal you then send a letter to all participating schools a few weeks prior to the challenge beginning letting students and parents know of the reading challenge and when it begins. A few days prior to the challenge beginning you provide the schools with a student/parent record sheet for the days of the reading challenge and a classroom record sheet to record total minutes read nightly. At the conclusion of the reading challenge the school identifies the winning class and the students in this class select their books. Your club then complies the order, Rotarians distribute the books, and the bill is paid.

Copies of all material needed to complete this Community Service project are available and can be easily modified to fit unique local needs. If you wish copies, or more information, please feel free to contact Bert Raphael, District Literacy Chair, 2005-06.

George Mathiesen, Past Chair.