Submitted by: Kris Fehr, Assistant Governor 
During the month of March, the Dickinson Rotary Club continued with its long-time annual youth literacy project by reading to the preschoolers at Head Start and the Dickinson Early Childhood Program. Teachers at each building selected the books: "The Caring Me I Want to Be!" for the ECP and "Ravi's Roar" for Head Start, and the Rotary Club purchased a copy for each student. The project is coordinated by Rotarians Deb Barros and Mary Massad, who said that 10 Rotarians read to 227 children in 14 different classrooms.
"This is one of our Rotarians favorite projects," said Massad. "The children love hearing the stories and getting a copy of the book to take home, and we Rotarians love the enthusiasm of the early readers."
Reading daily to young children, even infants, can aid in building language, communication, social and literacy skills. Reading stimulates the child's brain that allows them to understand language has meaning. Studies show the more words children hear, the stronger their language skills will be once they reach Kindergarten.
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. Rotary supports education for all children and literacy for children and adults.