Advancing Literacy in Darien, One Kid at a Time

Rotary clubs exist to serve the communities they are in.  Since 1974, Darien and Lemont have been served by the Rotary Club of Darien, which on December 9 started their eighth annual dictionary project.  This project, part of Rotary’s effort to promote education and literacy, gives each third grader in Darien and Lemont schools their own dictionary. 

Rotary International is the world’s oldest and largest service club.  One of Rotary’s areas of focus is supporting education, and in Darien, this is accomplished by providing dictionaries.  The books are being distributed to all public and private elementary schools at no charge to students.

Over 500 dictionaries will be distributed in Darien and over 150 in Lemont.  Since the program’s inception, over 6,000 dictionaries have been distributed to nine schools.  Rotarians involved in this year’s project were: Bob Carlo, Halil Avci, Frank Burns, Randy May, Kellie Henry, Chris Gerrib and Tom Murray.   The club funded this and other projects via their annual auction.

For more information about Rotary, including how to join, visit www.darienrotaryclub.org or contact Chris Gerrib at 630-434-5075.  For more information about the national dictionary project, visit www.dictionaryproject.org.