We will be meeting at The Pirates House this Friday in our normal meeting room - Captain Flints Hall. The side door to the room will be unlocked if you would prefer to use that entrance.
Our speaker for this week is Dr. KC Sato, also known as Zero Roshi, of the Ancient Oaks Temple, Zen Garland Order Buddhist Temple of Savannah. She will talk about Zen in the 21st century and what it offers in an eWorld of evolving AI.
RCSE looks forward to seeing all members and guests this Friday!
RCSE Oyster Roast
Saturday, February 18th
4:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Please mark your calendars for the annual RCSE Oyster Roast. There will be a sign up for this event at the meetings or you can RSVP to Kerri at rotarysavananheast@gmail.com. This social is free for all members! The guest fee will be $50. Gordon Matthews has graciously offered to host the event at his home on Tybee Island (121 Eagle's Nest Drive). RCSE looks forward to seeing everyone at the Oyster Roast!
What is Read United? Read United is United Way of the Coastal Empire's programmatic response to the promotion of Early Childhood Literacy in our region. Read United will be on February 24th and is replacing Rotary Read In.
Read United Day is the hallmark event, an initiative that seeks to place books in the home of every child in Pre-K through second grade in our region. The program focuses on children in these lower grade levels because we recognize that an early response to the literacy gap that exists in homes of many low-income households can enable children in these homes to succeed.
Read United Day will occur across our region on a single day, February 24th. This kick-off event will place community leaders and volunteers in classrooms to read to over 19,000 children across our four-county footprint in Pre-K through 2nd Grades. Students will also receive their own books to take home with them during this event to promote literacy nutrition in the home. Although you can sign up to read at any of the schools, Haven Elementary is RCSE's partner school. If you would like to sign up, please visit https://www.unitedwayvolunteers.org/aem/general/event/?doc_id=6381.
Although it was cold and rainy outside on Friday, RCSE still managed to bring the fun and warmth to our weekly meeting. President Jason Jones reminded everyone to sign up for Read United which will be on Friday, February 24th. He also encouraged people to sign up for the annual RCSE Oyster Roast on Saturday, February 18th. Once all Rotary Business items were discussed, Katie Gingrich introduced our speaker for the day, fellow Rotarian Roy Austin, who spoke about his organization Libraries for Kids, International.
Libraries for Kids, International provides books to children in Kenya. In Kenya, there is only one textbook for every 20-30 students. Since the students have to share these books, it considerably slows down the learning process. There are 6700 rural schools in Kenya and they have placed books in half of them. By putting books in 3400 libraries, they have impacted 3/4 million children. The impact of these donations is great! There is an increase in enrollment, test scores have improved, students come in early to read, and parents come in the evening for additional education. Currently, the program is only in Kenya but Roy and his team are making contacts in other countries in order to expand the program. Throughout Roy's presentation, he was showing slides after slides of children and schools in Kenya.
100% of donations go to the program unless stated otherwise. There is not any paid staff in the United States but they do have an Operations Coordinator in Kenya. Less than 3% of the operating costs are used for Administration. They ship the books to Africa on containers and have partnered with Books for Africa to handle the logistics. Libraries for Kids, International needs donations, volunteers and people to participate in their upcoming fundraising event in Bluffton. If you would like to learn more about this organization, please visit https://www.libraries4kids.org/
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