Martin Luther King Jr. was a great dreamer! He would have made a great Rotarian. In Rotary, we have our dreams and hopes. These dreams and hopes focus on our youth, peace-keeping efforts, and so much more. We are courageous enough to dream that we can conquer Polio. From almost 200 countries to just two countries and from hundreds of thousands of cases to just under 100, Rotary’s dreams are becoming a reality. Our youth are our hope so Rotarians focus in so many ways on our youth.
The Rotary Club of Magnolia worked on a playground for Isaiah 117 House which cares for youth that have gone through family drama. This crew of Rotarians, spouses, and friends created a world of play to help ease the mental suffering of these youth under the watchful eye of the volunteers of the Isaiah 117 House.
Rotarian Pat Prein from the Rotary Club of Lake Conroe is working to make the Imagination Library created by Dolly Parton to become a reality in Montgomery County. Dolly Parton has a dream of providing all kids from birth to kindergarten a free book on a monthly basis. It is a known fact that children five and younger are voracious learners with books helping to provide great opportunities to learn. Pat Prein has teamed up with Rita Wiltz to bring the Imagination Library to Montgomery County youngsters. This Imagination Library provides a free book that is shipped monthly to that youngster registered in the Imagination Library.
These young learners receive 60 books, one each month for five years which provides them with new learning experiences during their most formative years of learning. There is a lot of truth to the saying that everything I learned came during kindergarten and earlier! Currently, the Imagination Library is in zip codes 77384 and 77385. The books are free, but the parents are the only ones to sign their youngsters up for this fabulous education program. Pat is dreaming big and working to get parents to sign up for these free books. In addition, Pat Prein is working in helping to fund the books with such costs at half of the true costs. Books for this program go to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee where each book is embossed with the name of each child in the program and shipped via mail at the non-profit rate to arrive each month to those children enrolled in the program. This program is open to all children!
The Rotary Club of Conroe has a dream of supplying all of the first graders in the elementary schools with “I Like Me” books. These hardback books are personalized with each child’s name in the story and includes their friends, pets and activities what they like to do. These books encourage reading. Regretfully, these books are the first books that some of these first graders own. The Rotary Club of Conroe is raising funds for these personalized, hardback books with the books to be printed and distributed by May of each year to each of the first graders which feed Conroe High School.
This program serves about 1,500 first graders annually at a cost of $15 per book.
If you have dreams and want to make them a reality, see what Rotary has available for you. For more information on Rotary and our dreams, contact Ron Saikowski at rsaikowski@comcast.net.
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