Literacy Project #1

Name: The Dictionary Project

Description: Participate with other Iowa City area clubs in giving dictionaries to each 4th grade student in the Iowa City Community School District, and many outlying school districts around Iowa City and Coralville. The project organizer is the Coralville-North Corridor club. In RY 05-06, our club purchased about 130 dictionaries for about $200. About 10 volunteers contributed 15 hours to apply recognition stickers to each inside cover, and visit the schools to present the books to the excited students. Our community partners are local school district administrators, principals and teachers, and other area Rotary clubs. Again, in RY 06-07 we are purchasing and distributing dictionaries to 4th graders at three Iowa City elementary schools.

Literacy Project #2:

Name: Birthday Bags

Description: For over a year the Iowa City Downtown Rotary Club has assembled birthday bags for children from under-privileged families. We make 30-35 bags every other month at one of our regular meetings. Each completed bag contains the essential items for a parent or guardian to host a party of 8 children (cake mix, baking pans, cake decorating supplies, paper and plastic serving items, party favors, balloons, and a book gift for parent to give their celebrant child). The bags, favors and books are matched for age-appropriateness of the birthday boy or girl. A District 6000 Simplified Matching Grant ($750), the club’s match, and member contributions funded the project for RY 05-06. Our club has applied for another SMG to assist with the project in RY 06-07. Twenty-five volunteers contribute 15-20 hours each time we have a bag-filling session. One community partner is the Iowa City Crisis Center, where the bags are distributed to families who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford a birthday party for their child. A couple of local Interact members and visiting Rotarians helped assemble the bags one month. First Book, a local group distributing books to young children, has begun contributing the books for the bags.