Rotary Clubs call for help

Mike Sciacca

Rotarians hope to put more books in small hands.

The Rotary Club of Huntington Beach and the Huntington Beach Sunrise

Rotary Club have joined together to fill the library of of the financial

struggling Oak View Elementary School.

The goal of the program is to provide books for children in

kindergarten through third grade, and to have all children reading by the

age of nine.

It is based on the Reading by Nine program, a Southern California-wide

literacy initiative, started by the Los Angeles Times, that puts books in

the hands of children and bringsadult volunteers into classrooms to read

with students one on one.

The clubs have selected Oak View as the focus of the initial efforts

and have set up a fund of $3,000 to act as matching funds for public

contributions to purchase a minimum of 2,000 books for the school.

Oak View Principal Karen Catabijan was delighted to hear that her

school had been chosen.

“We’ve been working in partnership with the Rotarians for the last

couple of years and they have always been good to Oak View,” Catabijan

said. “They have been wanting to sponsor some type of program at our

school and they are very excited to lend financial support. We are very

excited, too. Our students really do appreciate all that the Rotarians

have done for us.”

Rotary International has partnered with the Reading by Nine since its

inception in 1998 and many clubs have developed mentoring programs in

their local schools.

Dale Dunn has been with the Rotary Club for 45 years and served as a

past president. For the past three years he has served as the club’s

program chairman and has attempted to get the club involved with the

program.

“I told my fellow members that I would volunteer to take this project

on and I have,” Dunn said. “We received a generous gift from Margaret

Nerio and that has helped put our plan into action.”

Dick Nerio was a former Rotary Club president who passed away a year

ago, Dunn said. In September, Nerio’s widow, a retired school teacher,

presented the Rotary Club of Huntington Beach with a check for $1,500.

“I thought that this would be the perfect time to start up the Reading

by Nine program,” Dunn said. “Here we had received this gracious gift and

I wanted to put it to good use. We would be able to use this money as a

matching fund.”

Dunn and the Rotary Club of Huntington Beach then contacted the

Huntington Beach Sunrise Rotary Club and asked them if they would match

that $1,500. The Sunrise club agreed and under fund-raising efforts that

currently are being run by Debbie Clinton, will match that amount.

Dunn says that $1,500 will buy 882 books and that $3,000 can purchase

1,764 books.

The books will be purchased through The Los Angeles Times’ Reading By

Nine program, which will allow Rotarians to use the program’s massive

purchasing power to get a 40% to 50% discount.

A $10 donation will be matched by Rotary funds to buy 12 reading

books, $25 will buy 30 books, $50 will buy 60 books and $100 will buy 120 books.

Oak View will be given a list of books that will be available for

selection. Dunn says that list will feature book series’ such as “The

Magic School Bus” and “Clifford the Red Dog.”

“We are very pleased to present this to Oak View,” Dunn concluded.

“The school has a very large Hispanic student body that is learning

English and the whole idea behind the Reading by Nine program is to have

our students reading at their proper level. We’re glad to be of help in

some way.”

* MIKE SCIACCA is the education and sports reporter. He can be reached

at (714) 965-7171 or by