WORDS & PICTURES: Gabrielle Versmessen
Our local community has a plethora of established clubs and organizations that work hard every day to make Manatee County a better place to live. The Rotary Club of Bradenton especially strives to bridge the gaps in early childhood education to set young students up for educational success.
Rotary International focuses on six specific issues: teacher training, fighting diseases, saving mothers and children, supporting education, growing local economies, and protecting the environment. The Rotary Club of Bradenton really focuses on supporting youth education through its grants, initiatives, and partnerships.
Currently, the Rotary Club of Bradenton and the Early Learning Coalition of Manatee County (ELC) are working together to support Visible Men Academy. This school’s mission is to provide boys with outstanding academic, character, and social education in a nurturing school environment. Rotary puts books provided by the ELC and other materials for the students into bags.
The Rotary Club of Bradenton President-Elect Paul Grivas makes it a point to volunteer at Visible Men Academy. “I want these boys to have a positive male role model. As a marching band and ROTC dad, I’ve always loved volunteering and being that person for the kids,” he says.
The Rotary’s involvement with Visible Men Academy goes back to 2013. In addition to the bag of various materials for the students, they also host monthly birthday celebrations and quarterly spaghetti dinners for their families. The most recent spaghetti dinner had a turnout of about 60 people, and seven Rotarians volunteered.
Paul explains: “It’s something where you know you’re making an impact. Even if it’s as simple as slinging spaghetti for kids, feeding their families, and watching them gobble that stuff down like there’s no tomorrow.”
Also, in partnership with the ELC, Soar in 4, Manatee Technical College, and the School District of Manatee County, Rotary has installed three giveaway libraries at Daughtrey Elementary, Manatee Elementary, and Palmetto Elementary Schools. The libraries, called “Boxo Boox,” make at-home book sharing more easily attainable for families by bringing various books to school locations where families frequent. The goal is to create a community of readers.
“If they learn to read and enjoy reading, it’s easier for them to read to learn after third grade where they’re actually learning the subject material,” says Paul.
The books are for all children aged newborn to 12 and include bilingual books to support readers of all backgrounds. These stands are made from disposed newspaper boxes which are then painted and made fun for kids. The end goal is to bring a Boxo Booxs to all Title I schools in Manatee County.
Dr. Sheila Halpin, Manatee County Schools Campaign for Grade-Level Reading & Volunteer Coordinator, explains: “Even before they start kindergarten, young children deserve to participate in learning experiences led by caring and well-trained adults. Parents and caregivers should have access to the support they need to encourage their children’s development.
She continues: “Reading to a child for just 20 minutes per day exposes them to about 1.8 million words a year. Children whose parents regularly spend time reading and talking to them by age four may have heard as many as 30 million more words than their peers. This lays a strong foundation for learning to read. This Campaign for Grade-Level Reading collaboration ensures families can access free books in their neighborhood.”
Another early reader and book initiative The Rotary Club of Bradenton has invested in with the ELC is Newborn to Read. This program was born of a desire to share with parents how important it is to read to a baby while also creating the foundation for kindergarten readiness. Through the Rotary’s support, every family with a baby born at Manatee Memorial and Lakewood Ranch Hospitals receives a care package containing a book from the Florida Division of Early Learning, titled First Teacher: A Parent’s Guide to Growing and Learning, an infant-friendly child’s book from the ELC, other learning resources, and the “prescription to read” from Dr. Audrey Davis, a neonatologist at Manatee Memorial and Lakewood Ranch Hospitals.
The “prescription” itself has information about the benefits of reading. On the back is other information for parents about resources they can continue to utilize as their child grows. Inside every book is the ELC’s logoed sticker with more tips about reading and a QR code for families to fill out a survey on how they feel about receiving the books and resources as well as what they’re going to do with them.
Dr. Davis reached out to the ELC, wanting to develop a program that would help dispel the misconceptions or awkwardness about reading to a baby and highlight all the wonderful benefits. Rachel Spivey, Director of Grant Management at the ELC, is also a Rotarian. She presented the idea to the Club, and they generously donated a $2000 grant that the ELC currently has to support Newborn to Read. This funding will provide 1,000 of these care packages to the families of newborns.
“It was really this natural idea development where, if we could create the resources, then Dr. Davis would have the audience to share them with. We have the materials at the ELC, and she has the new parents with her,” explained Rachel Spivey, Director of Grant Management at the ELC and one of the creators of Newborn to Read.
The Rotary Club provides for kids’ education through indirect means as well. Beds for Kids Inc. was started by a Manatee County Sheriff’s officer and First United Methodist Church of Bradenton. Manatee County was one of the few counties where the sheriffs went into the home to do child welfare checks, and often, they would find that these children didn’t have their own beds.
“While this isn’t necessarily an ‘education’ initiative, having a bed is very important for the purpose of education. Sometimes it’s one of the main reasons why people have difficulty getting acceptable housing for their kids or permanency. Because they don’t have simple infrastructure like a bed, things people take for granted, a child can have difficulty focusing in school when their home life isn’t a stable environment,” Paul explains.
These beds are handmade by volunteers, with Bible verses painted on the slats by other children. The beds are delivered to the child’s home, and they even can help assemble them! Along with the bed, the children are given new linens, pillows, teddy bears, a rug for prayer, a children’s Bible, and a storybook. This organization has built and delivered more than 400 beds across Manatee and Sarasota counties since 2017.
In addition to all they do locally, the Rotary Club of Bradenton grants money to a program that provides computers and resources in central hubs at schools in Tanzania. With their funds, they’re able to prop up a whole new school, and they’re set up between 50 and 60 schools in Tanzania.
The Club understands that not all education has to be four or more years of postsecondary school. This is why they’ve sponsored the Advanced Manufacturing program at Manatee Technical College.
Paul remarks: “You can’t outsource certain jobs. Things like haircutting, advanced manufacturing, HVAC technicians, and plumbing can’t be done with artificial intelligence.”
Rotary has granted scholarships to four local high school students and one student enrolled at Manatee Technical College. Investing so much back into our local community encourages others to not only do the same but also return to their community and uplift others in at-risk situations.
“Within our Club, we had a love of people that are truly committed to education and literacy. We’re coming up on our 100th anniversary, and we want to have an impact on Manatee County for another hundred years. It starts with children,” Paul concludes.
- For more information on The Rotary Club of Bradenton or how to get involved, please visit: https://www.bradentonrotary.org/
