Winnetka Rotary Literacy Projects

Helping others affected by Japan's earthquake and Tsunami helps our children learn empathy

2011-03-11T16:25:00.000-08:00

By now, you've probably read about Japan's earthquake and Tsunami. here's a link to Reuters for information and updates: http://t.co/AF54dZe

If you want to help family members read about Japan's earthquake and tsunami, here's a link on Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/6bonbbm

If you want to help the Rotary Foundation with earthquake/tsunami relief, here's a link: http://t.co/6yzMgU2

Helping our children learn age-appropriate information by reading about earthquakes and tsunamis can help them master the fear that such disasters can cause by focusing on the science of nature. By reading to their children, parents can also monitor whether children are becoming overwhelmed or fearful with too much information.

In contrast, seeing disasters unfold repeatedly on television and the Internet can be too intense for some children, causing nightmares and other fears that may linger for months.

Having your children work with you while you help others teaches them empathy, which they need in order to grow up to understand the importance of the Four-Way Test. What can you do to help?

Sept 23 Guest bartending event for OPERATION WARM COATS

2010-09-21T10:14:00.000-07:00

OPERATION WARM Coats for Children Guest Bartending

Chair: Richard (Rich) Lalley
Date: Sep 23, 2010 at 5:00 PM - Sep 23, 2010 at 7:00 PM

Location: Little Ricky's Rib Joint
540 Lincoln Avenue, Winnetka

Help us raise funds for our Operation Warm project by enjoying fellowship at a happy hour with Rotary Guest Bartenders. All tips will support our plans to provide new winter coats to children served by Chicago Commons and Youth Services of Glenview-Northbrook. Each $20 tip will provide a child with a new winter coat!

Can't come? Support the project through PayPal at Http://WNRotary.org

Winnetka Rotary fundraiser for Winnetka Library Summer Project

2010-06-07T06:36:00.000-07:00

Winnetka-Northfield Rotary president Rich Lalley announced a community collaboration with the local library where we inspire our children to delve into summer reading while raising funds for the benefit of Reach Out and Read Illinois:

The Winnetka-Northfield Library District is pleased to work with the Rotary Club of Winnetka-Northfield this summer for the benefit of Reach Out & Read Illinois. Rotarians help by sponsoring young readers!

Reach Out & Read provides children's books to pediatricians who serve families in low income communities, to encourage parents and caregivers to read to their children and to increase literacy rates.

The children of our communities who will participate in this year's Summer Reading Program -- Be a Reading Superhero! -- and who choose to sign up for this special program will help to raise money for this worthy cause. Hundreds of children sign up for Summer Reading each year and thousands of books are read.

So, where do Rotarians, parents, and community members, come in?

Please let library director David Seleb or Youth Services know (at 847-446-7220) if you are interested in being a reading sponsor. You may choose to donate a certain amount of money for a certain number of books read by our children. For instance, .10 for the first 500 total books read. In that case, you donation would be $50.00. This would encourage our children to read more throughout the summer.

Or, you may simply donate a set amount of your choosing to the program. Either way, our children will know that they can make a difference in the lives of less fortunate children just by reading.

Our staff will produce a video with some of the participating children who will talk about their experiences with the program and their desire to help. We will show this video at a Rotary Club program in the fall and invite some of the children and their family members to attend to talk about their participation and to thank the Rotary Club members.

Please send David Seleb a message if you are interested in being a sponsor with details of how you would like to donate. If you have any questions about the program, please contact him at 847-446-7220 or at david@winnetkalibrary.org.

Thanks for being a reading superhero!

What is Reach Out and Read? Here's a quote from their organization's site

About Us

Reach Out and Read (ROR) is an evidence-based nonprofit organization that promotes early literacy and school readiness in pediatric exam rooms nationwide by giving new books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud.

ROR builds on the unique relationship between parents and medical providers to develop critical early reading skills in children, beginning at 6 months of age. The 3.9 million families served annually by ROR read together more often, and their children enter kindergarten better prepared to succeed, with larger vocabularies and stronger language skills.

Our Mission

Reach Out and Read prepares America's youngest children to succeed in school by partnering with doctors to prescribe books and encourage families to read together.

Doctors, nurse practitioners, and other medical professionals incorporate Reach Out and Read's evidence-based model into regular pediatric checkups, by advising parents about the importance of reading aloud and giving developmentally-appropriate books to children. The program begins at the 6-month checkup and continues through age 5, with a special emphasis on children growing up in low-income communities. Families served by Reach Out and Read read together more often, and their children enter kindergarten with larger vocabularies and stronger language skills, better prepared to achieve their potential.

The Reach Out and Read Model

Pediatric healthcare providers (including pediatricians, family physicians, and pediatric nurse practitioners) are trained in the three-part ROR model to promote early literacy and school readiness:

* In the exam room, doctors and nurses speak with parents about the importance of reading aloud to their young children every day, and offer age-appropriate tips and encouragement.
* The pediatric primary care provider gives every child 6 months through 5 years old a new, developmentally-appropriate children's book to take home and keep.
* In the waiting room, displays, information, and books create a literacy-rich environment. Where possible, volunteer readers entertain the children, modeling for parents the pleasures - and techniques - of reading aloud.
See http://www.reachoutandread.org/about/

I am always inspired by communities of children, families, professionals, and organizations taking small but meaningful steps to make our world a better place. In this project, individuals, families, and organizations get a lot of bang for their buck: Encouraging individual children to read during the summer, promoting volunteerism in children who can raise funds via their reading efforts, promoting literacy in at-risk families through the Reach Out and Read Program, promoting pediatrician-parent collaboration in achieving child development goals, and strengthening community relationships through volunteerism. Whether it's the actual reading by the children, sponsoring of the readers by parents and community members, or other ways to draw our community together, there is something every one of us can do. What have you done today?
Dr. Jeanne Beckman

Rotarians Warming the Hearts and Minds of Chicago's At-Risk Children

2009-12-17T19:07:00.000-08:00

Warming the Hearts of Children
Editor: Richard (Rich) Lalley

Area residents helped Rotary Club nearly double its goal for new winter coats for kids living in need.

Continuing its 85 year tradition of community service, The Rotary Club of Winnetka-Northfield provided new winter coats to nearly 800 Chicago children living in need.

"A winter coat is an essential item in Chicago's winters," said Rich Lalley, President of the Club. "A coat provides more than just warmth, it allows a child to attend school, where they not only receive an education, they also receive meals. A new coat provides the added benefit of increasing self esteem- who doesn't like getting new things?"

New coats and dictionaries were donated to Lawrence Hall Youth Services for each of the nearly 400 children it serves. Additionally,new coats were donated to The Night Ministry and Chicago Commons, both agencies serving the neediest of Chicago's residents, including many homeless families.

"Lawrence Hall helps at-risk children redefine the paths of their own future," said Mary H. Hollie, Chief Executive Officer of Lawrence Hall Youth Services. "For many of our children, Lawrence Hall is the first home they have ever known. We provide a safe environment where abused and neglected children can move on to adulthood with resiliency and hope."

The Rotary Club will purchase new coats from Operation Warm, Inc.®, a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to distributing high quality, new winter coats to children living in need. Over the past eleven years, Operation Warm has distributed more than 600,000 new winter coats. Dictionaries will come from The Dictionary Project, a charitable organization that has helped distribute over 9.8 million dictionaries to children since 1995.

Area citizens helped the Rotary Club with this project through donations. "A $20 contribution will warm the heart and mind of a child with a new winter coat and dictionary," said Mr. Lalley. Several fund raising activities are planned for this project.

The project was funded by the club's charitable foundation, a grant from Rotary District 6440 and individual donations. The Winnetka-Northfield Rotary Charitable Foundation contributes to local, national and international charities and service projects. Local recipients include the Hadley School for the Blind, the Glencoe Educational Foundation, Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation, Communities in Schools Chicago, Haven Youth and Family Services, Jewish Vocational Service and Employment Center and Lawrence Hall Youth Services in Chicago. Internationally, the foundation has supported schools and libraries in Uganda, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Viet Nam.

The Rotary Club of Winnetka-Northfield meets Thursdays from 12:15 to 1:30 at the Winnetka Community House for lunch and a speaker. Membership is open to service oriented residents and workers of the area. Guests are welcome to attend. To learn more about the club and its schedule of lunch programs, visit www.wnrotary.org.

About Lawrence Hall:
Lawrence Hall Youth Services is a child welfare agency that treats, educates and provides a home for some of the most at-risk children in Illinois. Approximately 16,000 children are wards of the state of Illinois. Lawrence Hall Youth Services is a critical link in the Illinois child welfare system, providing highly specialized and individualized care for nearly 1,000 infants, children, adolescents and their families. Lawrence Hall offers a full array of services and seamless transitions from more intensive to less intensive levels of care to equip our youth with the tools and skills they need to set them on the path toward becoming proud, productive participants in society. For more information, visit www.lawrencehall.org.

About Operation Warm:
Operation Warm is the nation's largest nonprofit providing new winter coats for children in need. Through its core values of accountability, excellence, integrity, innovation, respect and teamwork, Operation Warm strives to accomplish its vision - every child wearing a new winter coat is healthy, able to attend school regularly, and has strong self-esteem. Since its inception in 1998, more than 500,000 children have received the gift of warmth. For more information about Operation Warm, visit www.operationwarm.org

Rotary partners with Premier Literacy for Dictionary Project

2009-09-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

The Winnetka-Northfield Rotary is honored to have Premier Literacy partner with us for distributing both print dictionaries from the Dictionary Project organization (see dictionaryproject.org) and accessible electronic dictionaries from Premier Literacy, to local school children.

Premier Literacy, a division of Premier Assistive Technology, recently partnered with The Rotary Club of Winnetka - Northfield in June 2009 to sponsor a charitable distribution of dictionaries to over 500 third-grade and special needs students in the Winnetka and Northfield public schools. This initiative is yet another in the continuing efforts of the Winnetka - Northfield Rotary Charitable Foundation to support charitable activities locally, nationwide and internationally.

Ken Grisham, President / CEO of Premier Literacy, explains, `We were approached earlier this year by Dr. Jeanne Beckman of The Rotary Club Winnetka - Northfield to participate in their annual campaign to make dictionaries available to local students. We were pleased to be able to collaborate with Rotary to contribute to a campaign such as this that involves one of the cornerstone elements of literacy anywhere. One of our products, the Ultimate Talking Dictionary software application, is a natural fit for this initiative, particularly with the rapidly expanding presence of digital books and use of the Internet in our classrooms. We wholeheartedly endorse this effort and look forward to continued participation with Rotary in similar dictionary distribution campaigns elsewhere.

continued http://www.dictionaryproject.org/CMS/UI/Article.aspx?ID=2218

Stay tuned for our Rotary club's next project where we will provide warm coats and dictionaries to Lawrence Hall.

Rotary Club of Winnetka-Northfield Distributes Dictionaries to Local Students

2009-06-13T09:39:00.000-07:00

Members of the Rotary Club of Winnetka-Northfield hand out dictionaries as end-of-school year gifts to third graders at Winnetka’s Crow Island School. Rotarians from left to right, Penny Lanphier, Literacy Chairperson Dr. Jeanne Beckman, Incoming President Rich Lalley, and Joe Fell.

Rotary Club of Winnetka-Northfield Distributes Dictionaries to Local Students

June 11, 2009 (Winnetka, IL)

Continuing its 85 year tradition of community service, The Rotary Club of Winnetka-Northfield this week provided a end-of-year gift to every third grade student in the Winnetka and Northfield public schools. Working with The Dictionary Project and Premier Literacy, local Rotarians acquired and distributed printed and computer software dictionaries to third graders at Winnetka’s Hubbard Woods, Greeley and Crow Island schools and Northfield’s Middlefork school. Gifts were also made to all special needs students throughout the two districts. The project was funded by the club’s charitable foundation and a grant from Rotary District 6440.

“Promoting education and literacy is a core value of our club, reflecting the priorities of the community in which we live and work”, said Joan Evanich, Chairperson of the Winnetka-Northfield Rotary Charitable Foundation. “We look for and support projects throughout the world, including in our own back yard.”

“We chose to provide these gifts to third graders because that is the time when reading skills rapidly advance”, said the club’s Literacy Chairperson Dr. Jeanne Beckman, who initiated the project for the club. “Dictionaries and thesauruses are great tools to help children further their vocabularies, allowing them greater pleasure and benefit from reading.”

The Winnetka-Northfield Rotary Charitable Foundation contributes to local, national and international charities and service projects. Local recipients include the Hadley School for the Blind, the Glencoe Educational Foundation, Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation, Communities in Schools Chicago, Haven Youth and Family Services, Jewish Vocational Service and Employment Center and Lawrence Hall Youth Services in Chicago. Internationally, the foundation has supported schools and libraries in Uganda, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Viet Nam.

The Rotary Club of Winnetka-Northfield meets Thursdays from 12:15 to 1:30 at the Winnetka Community House for lunch and a speaker. Membership is open to service oriented residents and workers of the area. Guests are welcome to attend. To learn more about the club and its schedule of lunch programs, visit www.wnrotary.org.

Follow-up on dictionary project plus

2009-05-14T18:38:00.000-07:00

Our orders are in, the District Simplified Grant check is on the way, and we should be able to distribute our dictionaries in the first week of June. Here's what our project entails:

For the Winnetka-Northfield Rotary’s literacy project, the traditional Rotary Dictionary Project (one book for every 3rd grader), will be combined with added bonus of the Ultimate Talking Dictionary (computer software that is a full dictionary that reads aloud the definitions, so that every third grader in the Winnetka and Northfield public schools(plus one dictionary for each special needs and ELL student in all grades between kindergarten and eighth grade),can not only have his or her own traditional print dictionary, but can own his or her own copy of dictionary software to look up words on a computer at school or at home. Here’s a description of the Ultimate Talking Dictionary:

The Ultimate Talking Dictionary (UTD), is not only a comprehensive dictionary, but has other robust, integrated features that make it unlike any other dictionary anywhere. Like all other Premier products, UTD reads everything to you. The dictionary contains over 250,000 words, terms, jargon, and even proper nouns like geographic entries (e.g. cities, countries) and historical persons. UTD has a complete thesaurus built-in that allow you to quickly find synonyms and their corresponding definitions. The “Power Search” feature lets you look up words when you only know a partial spelling. Premier’s unique Interlink technology incorporates complex cross-references between all words in the UTD so you can quickly find related terms and definitions, even when you only have a vague concept of a word.

1. How will this project meet the needs of the community?

Even though many of the students in these two communities have family incomes that are far above those generally viewed as in need, most, if not all, students can benefit from additional vocabulary support and encouragement. The dictionary project has repeatedly demonstrated that students feel great pride in ownership in having their own personal dictionary. Additionally, many students have some barriers to easy acquisition to vocabulary growth, whether due to unidentified or identified learning challenges, disabilities, and/or English language learning. Combining both traditional dictionaries with software versions allows equal access and provides a foundation for lifelong learning.

This is a great kickoff to the local service project our incoming president, Rich Lalley, has planned. Stay tuned...

Obama Inauguration: Oh Yes I Can

2009-01-20T17:59:00.000-08:00

On January 20th, I joined many fellow Chicagoans who shivered in the falling snow while watching Obama's speech on the Jumbotron at the Daley Plaza in Chicago. While I could not hear the speech, I watched the closed-captioning (provided with Dragon voice recognition technology, I'm sure)and was struck with the hope that we can get our great country back on track.

Obama's speeches are full of rich vocabulary, full of vision, and full of the love of history. Without a good education, Obama would not be where he is now, guiding us back from the precipice of illiteracy, financial ruin, and overall despair.

So many times, individuals are discouraged from achieving their full potential in learning, whether due to the Pygmalion effect of low expectations for people of color or for people with disabilities. So today, I wrote a little piece to speak to the belief that any and all individuals CAN achieve their full potential.

Oh Yes I Can

Give me a lap to hear the books and I will learn
Oh yes I can!
Give me the excitement of hearing about the world through books and I will learn
Oh yes I can!
Walk me to the library and I will learn
Oh yes I can!
Give me the books to learn and I will learn
Oh yes I can!
Give me a dictionary to learn the words and I will learn
Oh yes I can!
Give me the microscopes and test tubes and computers and I will learn
Oh yes I can!
Give me the tools to learn and I will learn
Oh yes I can!
Mentor me and I will learn
Oh yes I can!
Share your excitement in learning and I will learn
Oh yes I can!
Take down the barriers to learning and I will learn
Oh yes I can!
Try to discourage me from learning, and I will tell you
OH YES, I CAN!

©Jeanne D. Beckman

Parents everywhere, please join me in taking back the education of our children. Read to them, and if you struggle to read, seek out literacy classes and computer technology at your library to read to you and your family. There is no shame in difficulties in reading unless you refuse to ask for help in learning to read. Turn off your televisions and read, read, read.

Who was it who said, those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it? Obama's speeches certainly reflect that he knows history and is using his understanding of it to bring our country back to greatness. He would not have learned history if he had not read an abundance of books on every subject he could find.

Please join me in asking yourself, "What have I done today to encourage a child to reach for knowledge, understanding, and to walk the path toward community and country contributions?"

Winnetka-Northfield Rotary wins two grants

2008-12-10T12:59:00.000-08:00

Dr. Jeanne Beckman, literacy chair and board member of the Winnetka-Northfield Rotary, is pleased to announce that our Rotary club is the recipient of grants from both the Winnetka-Northfield Rotary foundation as well as a district simplified grant (DSG) from District 6440 of Rotary International. Here is a description of the project:

For the Winnetka-Northfield Rotary’s literacy project, the traditional Rotary Dictionary Project (one book for every 3rd grader), will be combined with added bonus of the Ultimate Talking Dictionary (computer software that is a full dictionary that reads aloud the definitions, so that every third grader in the Winnetka and Northfield public schools(plus one dictionary for each special needs and ELL student in all grades between kindergarten and eighth grade),can not only have his or her own traditional print dictionary, but can own his or her own copy of dictionary software to look up words on a computer at school or at home. Here’s a description of the Ultimate Talking Dictionary:
The Ultimate Talking Dictionary (UTD), is not only a comprehensive dictionary, but has other robust, integrated features that make it unlike any other dictionary anywhere. Like all other Premier products, UTD reads everything to you. The dictionary contains over 250,000 words, terms, jargon, and even proper nouns like geographic entries (e.g. cities, countries) and historical persons. UTD has a complete thesaurus built-in that allow you to quickly find synonyms and their corresponding definitions. The “Power Search” feature lets you look up words when you only know a partial spelling. Premier’s unique Interlink technology incorporates complex cross-references between all words in the UTD so you can quickly find related terms and definitions, even when you only have a vague concept of a word.
1. How will this project meet the needs of the community?

Even though many of the students in these two communities have family incomes that are far above those generally viewed as in need, most, if not all, students can benefit from additional vocabulary support and encouragement. The dictionary project has repeatedly demonstrated that students feel great pride in ownership in having their own personal dictionary. Additionally, many students have some barriers to easy acquisition to vocabulary growth, whether due to unidentified or identified learning challenges, disabilities, and/or English language learning. Combining both traditional dictionaries with software versions allows equal access and provides a foundation for lifelong learning.

2. How will the sponsoring club or clubs work together to implement this project?
The Literacy committee’s project for our club is a “traditional plus” project, which will deliver a personalized copy (with a Winnetka-Northfield Rotary nameplate inside) of DictionaryProject.org’s Webster’s Dictionary for Students Special Encyclopedic Edition dictionary plus a copy of the Ultimate Talking Dictionary to every third grader at Winnetka and Northfield schools. Additionally, a copy of both will be provided to each child in first through eighth grades with an IEP or 504 (i.e. special needs students) and English language learners (ELL), regardless of grade in school so that every child can experience success by having an equal opportunity to acquire the rich vocabulary of the written word.

In addition to attending an assembly where our club members will deliver these dictionaries to the schools, Rotarians will also participate in a hands-on project of converting books on the third grade reading list (at the Winnetka-Northfield public library) into accessible text via scanning each one into accessibility software (loaned by Winnetka-Northfield Rotary Club to the public library, a 2007 district award-winning Winnetka-Northfield Literacy project). School-provided library copies of these traditional books will be scanned, and their accessible versions will be placed on a CD in a Rotary bookplated pocket inside the front cover and returned to the respective school libraries.

Hands on component:
Ø Rotarians going to schools and presenting “dictionaries with a difference” to assembly of 3rd graders and possibly assembly of special needs students
Ø volunteering reading books aloud, either at schools or at the public library
Ø Northfield: possible facilitating special thesaurus projects at school request
Ø Age-appropriate mentoring student projects of making books accessible
Ø Scanning 3rd grade book lists into accessible print
Ø Scanning/mentoring of scanning of other book lists into accessible print as project matures
Ø Accessibility software utilized in library with possible student and parent mentoring

Stay tuned to find out how we plan to "pay forward" this project

Winnetka-Northfield Rotary wins district literacy award!

2008-04-26T12:27:00.000-07:00

District 6440 Governor Mike Erikson announced at the Rotary District 6440 Conference that the Winnetka Northfield Rotary was one of the recipients of the District Literacy Committee's Excellence in the Promotion of Literacy Award for their numerous projects, including accessible literacy library projects which are growing beyond the local libraries toward national and international library participation. Accessible literacy projects allow all individuals, including those with disabilities, to read about their world and make it a better place.

Award-winning Literacy Projects coming soon!

2008-04-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

The literacy committee of Rotary District 6440 just completed a video that featured some of the 2006-2007 award-winning literacy projects of the district's Rotary clubs. This video will be shown during the district's conference in Itasca, Illinois on April 25th. Check back here for a You-Tube video of these wonderful projects.

On April 26th, the 2007-2008 award winners will be announced during the awards luncheon. Check back here for a list of the winners and the great projects.

Are you going to the conference? Here's a link to the district website where you can download a registration form:
District 6440 website
Hope to see you there.
Jeanne Beckman

Free Rice: Learn vocabulary and donate rice through the UN Food Program

2008-03-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

Instead of playing solitaire on the computer, how about playing a literacy game where, by choosing the correct definition to a vocabulary word, you can donate 20 grains of rice to the UN Food Program? Try it: http://www.freerice.com/

My personal daily goal: 100 grains of rice (5 vocabulary words). What have you done today?

About FreeRice

FreeRice has two goals:

Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

This is made possible by the sponsors who advertise on this site.

Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your vocabulary can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself.

Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide. Thank you.
“Web game provides rice for hungry . . . FreeRice went online in early October and has now raised 1 billion grains of rice [by November 9].”

- BBC News

Yesterday alone, 120,839,820 grains of rice were donated.

Now, in the privacy of your own home, you can grow your vocabulary as you raise funds for feeding the world's poor.

President Wilf Wilkinson supports literacy projects for every club

2008-03-15T12:50:00.000-07:00

Each time Rotary President Wilf Wilkinson speaks, he mentions the importance of literacy. March is literacy month. What is your club doing to promote literacy? Here's a picture of President Wilf Wilkinson with Winnetka Rotary literacy chair Dr. Jeanne Beckman. Stay tuned for more Winnetka-Northfield literacy projects.

Rotary Gets It: Literacy Opens the World to Peace, Prosperity, and Fellowship

2008-03-11T22:23:00.000-07:00

March is literacy month. What has your Rotary club done to support literacy in your local and global community? No project is too large nor too small for those who are of a committed and collaborative nature. Share a book, share the world.
Here is the story of Rotary:

"This is a book
That was donated to a third grade classroom
or was studied by a student abroad
or helped teach farming methods to a Ugandan villager
or maybe all of the above

Each Year, thousands of books are donated to schools, hundreds of university students receive international scholarships, and countless children and adults are taught how to read. Thanks to the 1.2 million members of Rotary who wrote the book on helping others."

Some may ask, "What's in your wallet?"
Instead, my fellow Rotarians and I ask, "What's on your bookshelf
.....and what's in your heart?"

JB

More projects!

2008-03-08T06:30:00.000-08:00

Earlier, I listed the projects that the Winnetka-Northfield Rotary foundation had funded in 2007, but that is only the beginning. Here are a few others:

Dirk Tussing spearheaded a library project in Vietnam that raised at least $21,000: http://www.clubrunner.ca/CPrg/DxProgramHome/programhome.aspx?cid=2417&pid=13503&plid=2604
Bill Johnson is tutoring with Literacy Chicago's adult literacy program, and donated approximately $200 to purchase Autoskill reading software and books: http://literacychicago.org/adult_literacy.htm
Mike Wurzburg tutors with students at McGaw YMCA: http://www.mcgawymca.org/
Tony Kambich donated $200 to the library accessible literacy project.
Jeanne Beckman has donated $200 plus a new scanner valued at $335 to the library accessible literacy project, has facilitated/scanned over 150 hours of volunteer scanning of books to share with accessible literacy library projects and Bookshare.org, and is mentoring a local high school student with special needs who is doing a senior project that includes learning technology to access reading and writing: http://www.newtrier.k12.il.us/services/SrProject/index.htm

I will add to this list as I obtain more details

Winnetka-Northfield Foundation 2007 grants for literacy projects

2008-03-06T07:41:00.000-08:00

So many Rotarians go about their service projects in a quiet way, focusing their energies on the project itself rather than making their good deeds public. Our club's charitable foundation granted funding for the following literacy projects in 2007:

Winnetka-Northfield Rotary Charitable Foundation Awards June 7, 2007

Organization (Club Champion): Project/Proposal

Literature for All of Us (Karen Thomson): Literacy Education - helping teenage boys to improve their reading skills

Writer’s Theatre, Inc. (Sherre Jennings Cullen) The MLK Project- a project bringing Civil Rights information to schools

Pass Christian Library (Barb Aron):Children's Collection - supporting a two-year commitment to rebuild the Children's collection of the public library destroyed by Katrina

Rotary Literacy Project (Jeanne Beckman): Book Scanning/accessibility software - purchasing software to loan to libraries to allow people with reading challenges to access books, magazines, and the Internet.

LEARN Charter School (Linda Kellough): Materials for science lab - a private school in Chicago needs needs materials for their science lab

Nicaragua Matching Grant (Walter Reed):Fabretto's Children - an institution educating 700 students. Purchasing computer and digital equipment.

Kenya Library (Tony Kambich): Combined Community and School Library funding materials for a new combined library.

RISE International (Mike Wurzburg):Textbooks for a school in Angola.

Futures for Children: Supporting a young American Indian woman to complete her high school education.

Applications have already been submitted for funding for 2008. Stay tuned for updates on these and other literacy projects.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

2008-03-02T11:40:00.000-08:00

To kick off literacy month (March) and celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday, Winnetka Rotarian Dr. Jeanne Beckman held a Dr. Seuss birthday party at The Book Stall in Winnetka. In addition to reading books "the old fashioned way," children (and adults) who came to the party had an opportunity to try accessible reading software by reading a Dr. Seuss book on the computer. What is your favorite Seuss book? I think mine is Green Eggs and Ham, the Number four all time rank of children's hardcover books. Stay tuned for more literacy events during the month of March.

Many thanks to The Book Stall at Chestnut Court, 811 Elm Street, Winnetka, IL
Every time I go into this store, I am struck with the wide selection of books available as well as the passions of owner Roberta Rubin and her the avid book-reading staff. The Book Stall is a local, independent bookseller, and they will order any available book or audio book. Http://www.theBookStall.com

jb

Literacy Project Update

2008-02-25T09:09:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, February 23, we had a Rotary literacy project volunteer update, technology demonstration, and book signing. Visitors had a chance to look at Rotarian and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammad Yunus' new book (Creating a World Without Poverty) in both hardcover and in digital format that the computer read aloud.

Among the visitors, we had Kirk Reed, our assistant district governor. Other guests included parents, several disabled individuals, and professionals.

Visitors had hands-on demonstrations of technology that reads books, magazines (even the Rotarian), and Internet text aloud, as well as other assistive technology (tools for access). Visitors also had the opportunity to see the multiple ways in which our projects will provide digital (computer-readable) materials so that those who struggle with reading can have the same opportunities to read and learn as their peers.

If you missed this event, several more will be scheduled over the next few months. Stay tuned...

Accessible LiteracyTechnology Demonstration and Winnetka-Northfield Rotary Literacy Project Update

2008-02-18T13:44:00.000-08:00

Meet local Rotarian and author Dr. Jeanne Beckman

What: Winnetka-Northfield Rotary Literacy Volunteers Project Update, Book signing, Technology Demonstrations

When: Saturday, February 23, 2008 11-3

Where: One Northfield Plaza, Suite 300, Northfield, IL

Special for spreading the Rotarian spirit: Bring a copy of either Muhammad Yunus book (Creating a World Without Poverty or Banker to the poor: micro-lending and the battle against world poverty) and get a free digital copy for your computer to read aloud.

Find out about

Technology that reads any book aloud (text to speech)
Technology that types whatever you say (voice recognition or “Dragon”)
Technology that speaks for those with delayed, difficult to understand, or absent speech
Technology that helps you keep track of appointments, assignments, and other important information
How to get technology to meet your individual needs
How to share technology for literacy through local and international Rotary literacy projects
10% of book sales during open house will be donated to Winnetka-Northfield Literacy Project

Audience: Information for all ages

For more information, email Dr. Beckman at techpsych@techpsychologist.com

Excerpt from Tech Psychologist’s Guide

As you read this book

As you read this book, I also ask that you consider how you might impact others’ lives if you only had the time. It is my hope that this book will help you and your family find ways to access learning so that you will have time to more fully participate in the community, both at the local and global level.

Making our world a better place

Challenging barriers is not a pleasant stroll in the park. It drains families of energy we could spend making our world a better place. When families work together, the likelihood of creating change increases significantly. When you work together with other families and find some successes in leading change, who knows how far you can go? Maybe you can create changes outside your own communities. Can you help other families find funding sources for technology? Can you share your techniques for bringing about changes with other families?

A final thought on my own attempt at ripples of change

In my book, I challenged readers to “pay it forward” by finding ways to share what they’ve learned. My own attempt to pay it forward is that I will donate a percentage of the profit from this book to the Winnetka, Illinois Rotary Club literacy project. This project loans text-to-speech software and scanners to local public libraries, so library patrons can access all of the books within their library as well as have fully accommodated access to the Internet and digital media. We intend to have this project “paid forward” to other Rotary service clubs throughout the United States and internationally. Each of those clubs will be asked to pay the project forward to three other Rotary clubs, and so on.

For information about the project
Please contact Dr. Jeanne Beckman at 847-446-1251

or email her at techpsych@techpsychologist.com

Reading Support for ESL

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For those who are learning English as a second language, the accessibility software that is about to be installed in the Winnetka library can help. Both Kurzweil 3000 as well as Premier Assistive Technology's E-Text Reader IGT provide support for those who are trying to translate their reading material into a language they can easily understand. Here's the description of the E-Text Reader IGT

This is a easy to use reading tool that can read and translate documents to and from 8 different languages. Translate and entire document or highlight and extract a part of document and trans late just that part. The E-Text Reader is designed to help those who have trouble reading or comprehending the printed word. There are thousands of literature titles now available in electronic format, with more being released each day. We developed the E-Text Reader to read (using digital voices) the electronic version of books (“E-Books, or E-Text”) to you. The E-Text Reader can read any document in Standard Text, MS Word, RTF (“Rich Text Format”) and HTML formats. E-Text Reader contains bookmarking, text highlighting and extraction features that make it an ideal study aide. For more information, please go to http://www.readingmadeez.com/Home.php

Other libraries within the Rotary district are also examining whether their patrons could benefit from accessibility features of these universal design accessible reading products.

Phase 1: Text to Speech Software Delivered to Library

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In December, the Winnetka, Illinois library received the first loan of Kurzweil3000 text to speech software and a scanner for library patrons to use. This delivery included:

One network version of Kurzweil 3000 Color Professional
Four network versions of Kurzweil 3000 Learn Stations
A new scanner with document feeder donated to the Rotary project by Jeanne Beckman

Since the software is installed on the network, all library computers connected to the library network could be capable of providing accessible reading for those with vision difficulties or reading challenges. Headphones will be available for private listening to Internet or other digital text while viewing the text on the computer screen.

Volunteers from the Winnetka Rotary, as well as other organizations and individuals, are invited to learn about using this software as well as to find out about volunteer opportunities of scanning books for those who need accommodated access to the written word. Scanning is as simple as pressing a button for a copying machine! For information, you are invited to contact Jeanne Beckman at techpsych@techpsychologist.com or telephone 847-446-1251

How does illiteracy affect our communities?

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Illiteracy causes more harm than merely having a reduced ability to read and write. Illiteracy causes entire families to remain isolated from the everyday fabric of their local and global communities, to remain isolated from inspiration acquired by "enough education," and to remain isolated from a means to share history beyond the reaches of their spoken word.
----Jeanne Beckman

What is your Rotary club doing to bring about a literate community?

Literacy, the Winnetka Way

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Read All About It!

Literacy, the Winnetka Way

Please read about the local and international projects below and consider ways join us. Just as there are many ways to read, there are many ways to volunteer.

Contact Jeanne Beckman for more information at 847-446-1251
or email her at techpsych@techpsychologist.com

Not a Rotarian? Find out about how Rotarians around the world volunteer to make it a better place. Contact Jeanne Beckman to find out how to visit the Winnetka-Northfield Rotary or a Rotary club near your home or workplace.

December 2007

Updates

Winnetka Library project: Jeanne Beckman met with new director of Winnetka Library, David Seleb, who indicated that they are finally ready to set the club purchased accessibility software as well as the scanning hardware (donated by Beckman) in place for patrons to use in reading the Internet, books, newspapers, and other reference material within the library.

Jeanne Beckman contacted Glenview Sunrise Rotary Club, a 2007 District 6440 Literacy Award winner, in December regarding possible accessible literacy component in collaboration with their club.

Update: Jeanne Beckman met with an individual of the Glenview Sunrise Rotary Club to discuss collaboration with their current literacy projects and the ways in which accessible literacy could enhance their project.

Jeanne Beckman contacted New Trier’s Interact Club in September regarding possible volunteer participation in this project. The club sponsor indicated she would contact us when their club was ready to participate.

Update: Beckman will be meeting with the students in New Trier’s Interact Club in December to discuss participation in January of 2008

Jeanne Beckman presented our club’s accessible literacy to the Libertyville Rotary on March 19^th.

Update: The Libertyville Rotary Club has recently approved discussions regarding collaboration on accessible literacy with their current international projects. Meeting to define scope and collaboration details scheduled.

Jeanne Beckman presented our club’s accessible literacy projects to the Wilmette Harbor Rotary Club on February 21, 2007. The club has expressed interest in possible collaboration on this project.

Update: Possible collaboration still pending

November 2007

Now that we have the accessibility software and hardware for the Winnetka library project (see below), we need to schedule the presentation to the library as well as free community training sessions.

We are also ready to begin phase two: paying it forward to at least three other Rotary clubs. Here are the possible projects this committee is considering:

Stomp project (stompproject.org): Providing accommodated access to computers and email for those with learning disabilities who are in the military as well as for their special needs family members. Project description, collaboration with specific Rotary clubs, and proposal pending. About Stomp:STOMP is based out of Tacoma, Washington and is the only National Parent Training and Information Center for military families (both in the US as well as internationally) providing support and advice to military parents without regard of the type of medical condition their child has.
Microlending project whereby young teens through young adults with disabilities can borrow accessibility software and convert books for businesses and individuals for a fee. Rationale: Unemployment for those with disabilities hovers around 85%. For those who cannot read adequately, they cannot provide good parenting, cannot participate in adequate employment, and cannot participate in the political and civic processes. This project is in the development phase, but will be done both locally and internationally.
Accessibility to text in libraries in other libraries, both locally (North Chicago or Waukegan) as well as other international sites. Specific sites and respective Rotary clubs still being determined.

2007: Pay It Forward, the Winnetka Rotary Way!

Our Winnetka-Northfield Rotary club is implementing the pilot phase of an accessible literacy project in our own backyard, in our local library. This project lends text-to-speech software and scanners to our local public library, so library patrons can access all of the books within our library as well as have fully accommodated access to the Internet and digital media. We intend to have this project "paid forward" to at least three other Rotary service clubs throughout the United States and internationally, and will be applying for matching grants to help it grow. Already, we are funded to provide the scanning software and a club member has donated a new specialized scanner for the Winnetka library. We will be providing community training classes in using text-to-speech software for students as well as those with vision challenges.

An open house to present the software and hardware to the library as well as a fund-raising event in currently in the planning stages and hands-on volunteer sessions will be scheduled within the next few weeks.

Phase two of this project is to assist one Rotary club from a low-income community in Illinois, one from a community in another state, and one from a club outside of the U.S. Each of those clubs will be asked to pay the project forward to three other Rotary clubs, and so on. Help our club "pay it forward," to build community volunteerism, to build relationships with Rotary clubs who will "pay it forward" to make libraries accessible to those with vision and other print disabilities. There are many ways to read, and many ways to help our project grow.

2005-2006: Northwestern University Settlement Association

Our club collected and distributed over 70 new books (purchased at the Book Stall in support of a Winnetka Alliance for Early Childhood fundraiser) for the Settlement House's Head Start program.

Our club also collected, sorted, delivered, and donated 16 boxes of gently used books to the youth programs of Northwestern University Settlement House and Noble High School.

About Northwestern University Settlement Association
Since 1891 the Settlement has enabled low-income and immigrant families to reach the dream of self sufficiency. Over 9,000 neighbors benefited in one year alone through their emergency services, youth senior and community programs. There theater expanded its program, reaching over 37,000 people as audience members, artists, technicians and scholars.

District Literacy Committee website: Click here

http://www.clubrunner.ca/dprg/dxprogramhome/_programhome.aspx?did=6440&pageid=8148

Welcome to the Winnetka Rotary Literacy Projects Blog

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Our new literacy committee blog will share information about our Rotary literacy projects and events associated with sharing access to the word. Please come back to find out about our past, present, and future projects.