Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Among Rotary International’s seven areas of focus are education and literacy.

The Albemarle Rotary Club has a tradition of giving community grants to organizations which address one or more of these seven areas of focus.

Funds are raised through various activities including the annual Reverse Raffle held each fall.

Club Community Grant Chairman Todd Swaringen and the committee attempt to spread the club’s limited resources to where they will do the most good.

As the committee met, they determined that the Rotary Club should focus on supporting education in local schools. The committee recommended that four grants of $750 each be awarded to Central Elementary School, East Albemarle Elementary School, Albemarle Middle School and Albemarle High School.

At Central and East Albemarle, the funds will be used to support their Positive Behaviour Interventions and Supports programs. This program encourages good behavior, academics and good attendance.

Similarly, the grant for Albemarle Middle School will be used to support students who have achieved specified goals during each quarter of the school year.

At Albemarle High School, the grant will be used to purchase teaching aids and materials to assist Math I students.

In the past, Albemarle Rotary Club partnered with West Stanly Rotary Club to present dictionaries to third grade students.

In the growing electronic age of chromebooks, the use of dictionaries is waning, so the Rotary clubs have consulted with Stanly County Schools to determine another project which needed funding.

Dr. Jarrod Dennis consulted with his staff, including school nurse Faith McSwain. The conclusion was the need for an additional vision screening machine. This device can quickly scan a student’s eyes to detect any abnormalities.

Many of these abnormalities can be fixed with eyeglasses or contact lenses.

Stanly County Schools checks all students for vision issues. Having a second vision machine will ensure that every student can be checked at least every other year in PreK through eighth grade.

The total cost of the machine is $5,000. Albemarle Rotary has provided $3,000 and the West Stanly Rotary Club has provided $2,000 to allow the Stanly County Schools to proceed with purchasing this tool.

Albemarle Rotary Club meets each Thursday at noon at Atrium Stanly’s Magnolia Room.

Visitors are always welcome and new members can join at any time.

Anyone who can follow the Rotary motto of “Service Above Self” is welcome to find out more.