Pledge of Allegiance and 4-Way Test: President Jan Perruccio
Prayer: Mary
Raffle Winners: Jan T, Charlie R, Jan P
Card Game Winner: Marty D
Happy Bucks: A portion of the happy bucks will go toward purchasing scratch off tickets for the Lottery Tree at the Wine Tasting. Bucks for the nice weather, temp over 50 mid-day, our speakers today, tickets were given, for the Wine Tasting coming up April 10, seeing everyone, the folks working on the WT, progress toward spring after a tough winter, new dish towels for the VFW!
Jacquie Dandio-Harris is President of the Board and Susan Graves a Board Member and Tutor Coordinator for Literacy Volunteers Valley Shore (LVVS). Jacquie began by defining literacy which is "the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, and compute using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts". LVVS was started in 1979. In 1980 18 men and women completed their first tutor training program. It was incorporated as a 501c3 organization. Each year, on average, 160 volunteer tutors actively work with 200 adult students from all over the world.
Mission: to teach Valley Shore adult residents to read, write, and speak English to improve their work and life skills in their communities.
There is a high need for literacy services in our community. According to a study, 17% of our state population and 11% of Middlesex County lack basic literacy skills. Based on the town population there are 8,974 residents who could benefit from LVVS English language services.
LVVS covers 11 shoreline towns including Chester, Clinton, Deep River, Essex, Guilford, Killingworth, Lyme, Madison, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook and Westbrook. Clinton has the highest active student count at 35% followed by Westbrook at 22%. Tutors represent all towns in the service area. New tutors are trained at in-person workshops or through an online training program run by LVVS. Each tutor meets with students 8-10 hours per month. Annually, tutors deliver over 11,000 hours of one-on-one tutoring. For 2024-2025 there were 315 enrolled tutors of which 161 were working with a student. There will be tutor training sessions beginning April 9. There are 8 sessions.
LVVS has 1 paid staff member, a program manager. The rest of the staff are volunteers consisting of interviewers, librarians, workshop leaders, student support, fundraising event coordinators, office support and book sale committee members. The Board has between 8 and 15 members and new Board members are welcome. LVVS receives support from various sources from community funds and grants to corporate funding and private donations. They also have fundraisers which account for 33% of their funding.
Perhaps Old Saybrook Rotary can partner with LVVS to help improve quality of life in our shared communities! For more information, go to www.lvvs.org
Jan: There has been a schedule change (see calendar) for Student of the Month. The April 8th meeting has been moved to June 3. April 15 is open for a program.
Joan Winters asks that if you have a "big" item for the WT Auction, such as a boat (!), please send a picture of it to Joan for advertising on Facebook.
Kathy Calinan needs your committee budget asap for her club budget and planning.
Marty and Pete spoke about the upcoming Wine & Beer Tasting and Silent Auction. Pete has secured the Pavilion Thursday April 9 for storing and labeling items. Volunteers will be needed to bring the items to Saybrook Point R&M at 10am Friday and help decorate and organize the hall for the event. The deadline for turning in sponsor ads for the night's program as well as auction item information is April 3 so if any are pending, please get finalize now. Continue to sell tickets. April 10 promises to be fun and successful. Please plan to purchase a ticket and come. Your help will be needed!
John Aforismo spoke briefly about the Shredding Day which is April 25 from 9-12. Lawn signs will be distributed 2 weeks prior. Talk it up, especially to business owner who may have a need to clear space and shred documents that are taking up room.
Day of Service, Joan Winters
Day of Service is Sat. May 16th, 9:00 AM - Noon
Confirmed locations include: OS Town Green (under our OS Rotary Tent), Westbrook YMCA (pavilion in the back; bad weather inside), Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Library in the Community room (waiting for confirmation).
We will be using club funds for our advertising and some supplies, but most purchases will be with donations from CT Water ($750) and Ocean State Job Lot.
DOS Committee will be meeting today following our meeting.
To consider: we will need volunteers for 1-1/2 hour shifts at each of the locations. More on this once Wine/Beer Tasting is completed.
Centennial Committee: the budget is done, more at the next meeting
Social Meeting April 29: Surfridge Brewing Co., Essex - more to be announced
Nancy Morin announced the 4-Way Test Speech Contest Final will be taking place on April 26 at Stratford High School. The semi-finals took place last Saturday at Norwich Free Academy. Also, RYLA is happening April 11.
