Dear Falls Church Rotarians,
I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend! I look forward to seeing everyone at our club meeting tomorrow at Harvest Moon at 6:30pm. We will have a club assembly to discuss our initial plans for the year in the different avenues of service, fundraising, membership, etc. We’ll keep this a fairly informal discussion over dinner, and look forward to everyone’s input.
It’s hard to believe – especially with this heat wave we’re having – that summer is pretty much over now that it’s September. Did you know that September is Basic Education and Literacy Month on the Rotary calendar?
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Education and Literacy is one of Rotary’s six causes. Why is this so important? That’s because more than 775 million people over the age of 15 are illiterate – that’s 17 percent of the world’s adult population! Rotary’s goal is to strengthen the capacity of communities to support basic education, reduce gender disparity in education, and increase adult literacy rates. Rotary supports education and literacy for children and adults.
One of the projects we’re undertaking as a club this year is in support of basic education in Chantal, Haiti, which will build on our previous successful work in this community. We’re participating in a district grant with a number of other clubs under the leadership of Dr. Sarah John and the Rotary Club of Centreville and Chantilly. The project is to build a school library and science classroom and laboratory in a village that is rebuilding after Hurricane Matthew. I’ll tell you more about the project tomorrow and the in-kind donations we can collect as a club between now and mid-November. Our club will also be contributing $240 toward this project and our club’s portion of the district’s match. Interested club members will have the opportunity to travel to Haiti from January 20-27, 2019 to see the project site and volunteer.
Looking ahead, the DG will be making his official visit to our club on September 20! Mark your calendars!
See everyone tomorrow!
Stephanie