Delphi Rotary Club recently received a $1,500 Rotary District Grant to help fund a literacy project which will provide reading materials for preschool and kindergarten students at the Camden Early Childhood Center (CECC). The Delphi club will contribute an additional $500 to complete the $2,000 project, enabling the school to purchase 350 books.

Assessment tests indicate that in the 2009-2010 school year 46 percent of the kindergarteners entered at a developmental age lower than their chronological age of five-six, some as low as 21 months. The school has intervened with a basic kindergarten class that helps high-risk children close the achievement gap before entering kindergarten and working with them to prepare for first grade. Literacy and reading skills are an essential component of these efforts.

CECC has a literacy program in place with trained literacy teachers and a literacy coach but more materials are needed. The club’s project will provide leveled books for the children to read, “Just Right” books to read independently and books to read at home with parents.

In addition, Rotary Club volunteers will work with CECC Principal Carol Coon and her staff to begin a volunteer program, Rotary Reads, to help with in-class reading projects or one-onone reading time with students.

Delphi Rotary Club’s motto is “Service Above Self.” Some of the club’s activities include providing clean water to a community in Honduras, awarding thousands of dollars in scholarships to graduating Delphi Community High School seniors, sending DCHS seniors to the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards retreat at Camp Tecumseh each year, and partnering with other civic groups to help fund various community endeavors. Delphi Rotary Club was founded in 1939.