__________________________________________________________________________________Books are the gateway to a new way of thinking and living. That proves to be true for every age group. Critical thinking skills develop by the third grade and our Altrusans who are teachers already know the impact on students if they fall behind at that grade level. But do we truly grasp what an impact we can have if we focus on improvement of literacy rates in our communities? What do we know about literacy in Texas? See the statistics regarding literacy rates, Literacytexas.org included herein.
At first glance one might question if “one book at a time” could possibly make a dent in the needs portrayed by these numbers. Use these statistics as a road map to identify opportunities to raise the literacy rates of one target audience in your community. We must start somewhere. Our aggregate impact around the world when focused on “one book at a time” can be a force of change to uplift the lives of millions. Simply by increasing the number of parents that read to their children, coaching and mentoring students to graduate from high school, directing books and skills development into the jobs of the future and assisting those whose primary language at home is something other than English, Altrusans can raise literacy rates. A book and development of reading skills raises opportunity in a household from one generation to the next.
Making a difference is not always about eradicating a problem but sometimes you are the seed that spreads and develops an awareness of how your community is impacted by a problem. Awareness is often powerful enough to start a conversation about solutions. Solutions can be tiny steps that address the most basic issues of access to books or coaching.
Altrusans around the world are stepping forward with one book at a time. Every Altrusan in District Nine is asked to focus on some factor that affects literacy by serving, reading and leading others to read. Document the impact that you are having with your fellow Altrusans and let’s make a difference in the lives of millions. Please participate by sharing your club’s focus on literacy by connecting with the district on the Google doc to count books and service hours by club and through sharing your Lead to Read project with the District. Email your pictures and project descriptions to marybp21@gmail.com for inclusion in the NOMN future issues.
Click here to record your contributions: Altrusa District Nine - One Book Log
Altrusa District Nine - One Book Summary
Record your book donations and literacy service hours and let’s see what we can do as DISTRICT NINE ALTRUSANS. STARTING WITH WHY, by Simon Sinek, will lead off the District Nine Book Club discussion series beginning the first Wednesday at noon in January of 2022. We will be reading to lead. I hope that you will join the group to hear what some Altrusans learned from each selection. The next book will be THE ART OF POSSIBILITY by Benjamin Zander and Rosamund Stone Zander with discussion planned via zoom for the first Wednesday in February. These are two of my favorite books to broaden one’s perspective and grow to see “what can be.” One book at a time is really development of a READER and a LEADER for a lifetime.
Thank you for all you do,
Mary
