Chestnut Hill Rotary continues its extensive outreach in the community this week, distributing dictionaries to several 3rd grade classes at John S. Jenks elementary school in their new library. Community Service committee member Carol Bates led the effort and was accompanied by David Gary Smith and Jay Pennie.
The school principal and Chestnut Hill Rotary member, Corinne Scioli (pictured above), spoke to the students about the importance of reading and understanding facts, and announced a new daily contest based on information contained in the dictionaries.
Chestnut Hill Rotary purchased the books, “A Student's Dictionary & Animal Gazetteer,” for the students to take home. For some students in The School District of Philadelphia, it is the first book that they own.
Supporting education is one of Rotary's seven areas of focus. Rotary estimates that more than 775 million people over the age of 15 are illiterate. That’s 17 percent of the world’s adult population. Rotary’s goal is to strengthen the capacity of communities to support basic education and literacy, reduce gender-disparity in education, and increase adult literacy.
The school recently reopened its library after receiving support from the Chestnut Hill Rotary and many other community partners. The opening event story was featured recently in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Club Community Service member Carol Bates speaks to the students.
A similar distribution will take place on Monday at Emlen Elementary and later this month at Henry H. Houston Elementary School.
Posted on LinkedIn December 1, 2022
