Reach Out and Read is Brown's Message

OPENING: Bob Bramlage stepped in as Sergeant-at-Arms meeting and greeting members and visitors to the 3779th meeting of SGR, held this week at the Abbey Inn as the year’s second All Clubs meeting hosted by Dixie Sunrise Rotary. Jeff Morby led members of Dixie Sunrise, Red Rock and SG Rotary Clubs in the 4-Way Test.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Rotarians were invited to sign up as volunteers for the upcoming Ironman competition on May 1 by going to the City of St. George website.

Jeff Morby encouraged participation in the Utah Rotary District Conference Golf Tournament on Thursday, May 13. Registration forms are available on the utahrotary.org website. All proceeds will go toward the Polio Plus Challenge.

Linda Sappington, Chair of the Utah Rotary District Conference took questions from those present about the upcoming annual event and distributed registration forms.

District Governor Gil Trujillo enthusiastically encouraged participation in the URDC, noting he did not become a Rotarian until after he had participated in his first district conference.

PROGRAM: Today’s speaker was Wally Brown, District Literacy Chairman who spoke on the problems of illiteracy and its negative impact on families and communities. He noted, in the first year of the dictionary project, approximately 13,800 books were given away free-of-charge to 3rd graders around the state. Including this year’s distribution of about 50,000 books, Rotarians have now purchased and distributed 265,810 books in Utah. The PDG noted 2/3 of those who are illiterate in the world today are women who pass their lack of education and laissez faire attitude about learning on to their children - no doubt, among the more than 130 million children who are not in school.

In the Washington County School District - the district consistently considered to have the nation's lowest per-pupil expenditure and with 13 Title 1 schools - 22% of children are reading below grade level and 30-50% (depending on the neighborhood) are second language learners. Adding to the problems of the local community, 65% of prisoners at Purgatory Correctional Facility can’t read.

Comparatively, in Guatemala 90% of children have no books and only 5% have ever even seen a computer. Wally encouraged Rotarians to read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen, form scrabble clubs, read with your children and grandchildren and organize literacy related events on September 8 (International Literacy Day), February 2 (Dr. Seuss’ birthday) and October 16 (Noah Webster’s birthday). For more information on literacy, see http://www.betterworldbooks.com/ and http://www.booksinside.com./