March was Rotary Literacy Month.  The purpose of this month is to encourage local Rotary Clubs to raise awareness about literacy, launch new literacy initiatives and recognize literacy accomplishments from the past year.  Over the past year, many District 5960 Rotary Clubs created innovative programs for improving literacy in their community and, in some cases, across the world.  The District would like to recognize the following clubs for their contributions:

Austin: Dictionary Project.  Gave dictionaries to third graders with the Four-Way Test on the inside cover.

Hayward Area: Dictionary Project.  Donated Scholastic dictionaries to all third graders in Sawyer County, including the towns of Hayward, Winter, Minong, Birchwood and the LCO Reservation.

Hudson Daybreak: Dictionary Project.  Distributed thesauruses to each of the Hudson School District`s sixth graders and their teachers.  In addition, thesauruses were given to the sixth graders and their teachers at St. Patrick`s School in Hudson.

North St. Paul/Maplewood/Oakdale:  Dictionary Project.  Distributed dictionaries to third-grade students within nine elementary schools located in School District 622.  Rotarians went into each classroom to distribute the dictionaries and, if time permitted, read a story or tied in a word from the dictionary to another subject-related topic.

Rice Lake: Dictionary Project.  Distributed dictionaries to all third graders in Rice Lake and Cameron and partnered with the Hayward Club to provide dictionaries in the Birchwood School District.

St. Paul: Dictionary Project.  Provided 3,144 dictionaries to every fifth-grade student in the St. Paul Public Schools.  Distribution took place in late October and early November, 2007.  The dictionaries are owned by the student and are intended to be suitable for their middle-school years.  Rotarians inserted a Rotary label to the front inside cover to identify Rotary as the donor.  Approximately 45 Rotarians participated in this project.