MI Rotarians Promote Literacy in Seattle Grade School Tutoring Program

Members of the Literacy Committee of the Rotary Club of Mercer Island are continuing their efforts to promote reading in 2013 in partnership with Rainier Valley Rotary Club and the Seattle School District.

Every week, MI rotarians visit Van Asselt Elementary School, a K-5, a Title One school with 85 percent of its 630 students on the free lunch program (and many on the breakfast program as well) and a place where 17 languages as spoken in the children's home environment.

For the next few hours these children will be reading, one on one, to their tutors to polish their skills and understand in what is often a foreign language to them: English. 

The Rotary Club of Mercer Island has been active in the school though a tutoring program, joining with the Rainier Valley Rotary Club to supply math books to first- and third-graders and dictionaries to the third graders, and applying for grants for much needed items.