PLEASE HELP ME READ!September — Basic Education & Literacy Month
Fellow Rotarians,
Think for just a moment about those four simple words:
“Please help me read.”
For most of us, reading is something we do without even thinking about it. We read a menu, a prescription bottle, a road sign, a text from someone we love. We read to learn, to work, to communicate—and to dream.
But for millions of children and adults around the world, those simple tasks can be enormous obstacles.
September is Basic Education and Literacy Month, one of Rotary’s Areas of Focus and one that is very close to the heart of what we do as Rotarians. Education doesn’t simply teach someone to read a book. It gives people the ability to write a different future for themselves.
And District 5830 Rotarians are part of that story.
Through our clubs, District Grants and Global Grants, we can support literacy programs, provide books and educational materials, strengthen schools, train teachers, and create opportunities for children and adults who might otherwise be left behind.
But there is another important part of this story: The Rotary Foundation makes much of this work possible.
Your Rotary Direct Gift Becomes Service
This month, I’m asking every District 5830 Rotarian to consider something very simple: Rotary Direct.
Rotary Direct allows you to make an automatic recurring contribution to The Rotary Foundation. It doesn’t have to be a large amount. A comfortable monthly contribution quietly adds up throughout the year—and when thousands of Rotarians do the same, those gifts become an extraordinary force for good.
$10, $25, $50 or whatever amount works for you.
Month by month, those contributions help fund the grants that eventually come back to our districts and clubs to do the work we care so deeply about.
And somewhere, that work may reach a child holding a book she cannot yet read.
A teacher who needs resources.
An adult who has spent a lifetime hiding the fact that he struggles with words.
A school that simply needs someone to believe its children deserve more.
That someone can be Rotary.
As your District 5830 Foundation Chair, I am continually reminded that The Rotary Foundation isn’t something separate from us. It IS us. It is Rotarians choosing to put our resources together so that our individual gifts can accomplish something much larger than any one of us could do alone.
So this September, as we celebrate Basic Education and Literacy Month, I hope you’ll remember those four little words:
“Please help me read.”
And then let’s answer, together:
“Yes. We will.”
Thank you for supporting The Rotary Foundation. Thank you for considering Rotary Direct. And most of all, thank you for continuing to prove that in District 5830, Service Above Self isn’t simply something we say—it’s something we do.
With gratitude and Rotary fellowship,
Pamela Walters
District 5830 Foundation Chair
Rotary District 5830
Educate a child. Empower a community. Change a future
