Greater Kingsport Republican Women’s Club believes that “Good Readers Become Good Leaders”

Since 2009, the members of the Greater Kingsport Republican’s Club have made their annual literacy project one of their top priority community projects. Each year, the members have raised funds for their Dictionary Fund Literacy Project, through which they donate dictionaries to ALL third graders in the Kingsport City School (KCS) system. They have also donated dictionaries to area homeschool groups and the Kingsport Literacy Council in some of those years. The club has raised and donated a total of $6,974 dollars and donated a total of 3,337 dictionaries in the past five years. The club first sought the approval of the KCS School Board, who selected the dictionary to be given, Webster’s Dictionary for Students; Special Encyclopedic Edition. Barbara Bailey, GKRW Literacy Committee Chairman, stated that the books were $2.00 each until June 2014 when prices went up to $2.50 per book. This, however, did not discourage the club members. They continued to raise extra funds to cover the increase. Barbara added, “The students are so thrilled to receive their very own dictionary, and it is very rewarding for us to present these gifts to them personally.” We explain to them that we do this because we believe that “readers become leaders.” This is the motto from the National Federation of Republican Women Literacy Committee, with which our GKRW Club is associated. The Greater Kingsport Republican Women have donated 3,337 of the total 6,437 books which have been donated by all Tennessee Federation of Republican Women’s clubs since 2009. Barbara said that the GKRW club members are dedicated to this literacy community project, and that they understand that in this day of advanced technology it is important to remember the importance and simplicity of books and learning—while remembering that not every child has access to a computer. She added, “We truly believe that good readers become good leaders.”