The Rotary Club of Yelm’s work in improving literacy is getting noticed.
The local club won the Rotary District 5020 Literacy Award for work done in 2022-23. The district encompasses about 90 clubs in western Washington and the tip of Vancouver Island in Canada.
The Rotary Club of Yelm has several programs, including its teacher mini-grants.
“We supply the elementary schools with a grant application at the beginning of the school year, and elementary teachers, librarians and counselors have the opportunity to request supplies for the support of literacy programs in their areas up to $500 per applicant,” Yelm Rotary President Pamela Ferris said. “Mini-grants are awarded up to $500 for classroom materials or programs that would otherwise be unfunded and contribute to sustainable additions to literacy in the classroom. Our goal is to encourage and aid in adding more literacy resources into the classroom.”
This year, the club had 17 applicants, and all of the requests were approved.
The Rotary Club of Yelm budgets $5,000 a year for these grants and works with each applicant to fulfill their request.
“We also have members that help at different schools by reading to kids,” Ferris said. “Our Kindness Week sponsorship also helps improve literacy in the schools.”
Each month, the Rotary Club of Yelm recognizes a high school junior and senior as part of their Student of the Month program.
It also provides scholarships at the end of the year to multiple students.
“All of our club members work on the literacy goal in some way or another,” Ferris said. “We participate by meeting with teachers and staff and delivering the items ordered via the mini-grant program. We also have members that volunteer in the classroom.”
Currently, the Rotary Club of Yelm has 24 members, and the international organization of which it is a part has seven areas of focus — peace-building and conflict prevention, disease prevention and treatment, water, sanitation and hygiene, maternal and child health, community economic development, environment and basic education and literacy.
“Our club in Yelm focuses on the youth of the community,” Ferris said. “Literacy is one of those ways. We also host a pantry in every Yelm school for students to get food and hygiene support discreetly as needed. We support their food insecurity needs through the summer with our 10 Weeks of Summer food program and give out about 400 bags of food per week per school-age child.
“We appreciate the community support that we receive for all our projects and welcome any involvement someone would like to make, whether it be a monetary donation or a donation of time or membership to our club,” Ferris continued. “We welcome you all.”
More info can be found at https://www.facebook.com/yelmrotary.
