Greetings, Changemakers! September is Basic Education and Literacy Month in Rotary. One of the greatest ways we help our community is through our partnership with the Columbia Public Schools Title I Program. Improving literacy skills is critical in our pursuit to improve our community.

Starting this month, consider how you can Serve to Change Lives by volunteering to read with our youngest citizens in their preschool and elementary classrooms. Repeated opportunities to practice communicating are vitally important for these young children in developing literacy skills, especially for many of them who may lack such support and stability at home.

We have a unique and personally rewarding opportunity to help these children begin on a path toward success. Contact Les Gelband or Shane Winter, co-chairs of the PIE committee, for more information.  As Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai has noted, “One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world.“

President Loretta