One of the club’s favorite annual projects aligns quite well with our advocacy for youth and literacy. Boise Sunrise delivers dictionaries to third graders at 12 elementary schools in the Boise School District each school year. Then, we cap off that shameless advocacy for readers and reading with a targeted delivery of books to every student at a chosen school. This year, that school was Koelsch Elementary. Here’s how it works.
On Leap Day 2024 (February 29!), we assembled a crew of ~20 Rotarians to deliver these books. There were 16 classes to visit and ~330 books to give. Most of the students had long since forgotten about that “favorite book” question that was posed to them months ago, but we saw a delightful look of recognition on many of their faces when we handed each one their new book. On top of these books, we also delivered a no-strings-attached check for $500 to the school librarian.
This project model is very easy to replicate. It was great fun for everyone participating that day, as we took along many of the school’s administrative staff to help us find the right classrooms and have that one-on-one moment with students getting a new book. We love to support reading, and our motto for that day was “Readers are Leaders.” We strive to leave it better than we found it to be, and this project consistently meets that standard!
