Chisago Lakes Rotary and Foundation give literacy a boost

Chisago County Press May 16, 2014

The Chisago Lakes Rotary is known for donating books to nearby schools and libraries but the group’s efforts now have gone global. This month, the Chisago Lakes Rotary sent 2, 000 new books to two primary schools in Knysna South Africa thanks to a generous donation from the Pearson Foundation, and working through the Knysna, South Africa Rotary Club. The Chris Nissen and the Concordia Academy Primary Schools are located in a very beautiful part of South Africa that is dealing with local poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy.

The Chris Nissen school was built for a student population of 500, but is now serving a student population of 921. With limited resources, this school’s mission is to focus on 

Rotary book project update: Haiti

In an earlier paper we had a photo of a fundraiser check-passing from Chisago Lakes Rotary’s Bill Mack to a representative for the organization, Healing Haiti.

The funds were combined with other Rotary Club donations from Vadnais Heights, Oakdale, St. Croix Falls and Maplewood North St. Paul for a total of $2,050, which has been used to purchase books for children in Titanyen, Haiti, attending the Isaac Newton Christian School. The books were bought in Haiti, extending the benefit economically. Text is in the children’s native language, Creole.

literacy and building self-esteem. Literacy is the foundation for educational success, the children’s quality of life and their subsequent career attainment is greatly influenced by the educational opportunities they receive. Educating these children will lead to healthier families and economically stronger communities. These children will be the future leaders of their South African communities, Rotary recognizes. The Chisago Lakes Rotary contacted Pearson Foundation, the well-known sponsor of the We Give Books program, and the charitable arm of Pearson, the world’s largest educational publisher.

The Pearson Foundation worked with Chisago Lakes Rotarians Judy Chartrand , Kristine Nelson Fuge, and Joanne Sackreiter to establish the schools’ needs. The contact at the Chris Nissen School, Ian Fihla, a teacher, sent a list of students per grade and subject matter that they were lacking. The total number of textbooks and general readers was 1,000. Judy, Kristine, and Joanne worked through the Knysna South Africa Rotary Club to contact another disadvantaged school, Concordia Academy that Knysna Rotarians also mentioned. Concordia is new and doesn’t have any library books. The Pearson Foundation is donating 1,000 books to start a library. This is part of a larger project planned that will put computers, software, and a video camera into the Chris Nissen School.

Rotary books make their way to South Africa

Chisago County Press Jun 19, 2014

The Chisago Lakes Rotary recently teamed with Pearson Foundation, an arm of a publishing company, to provide educational books to schools in South Africa and word is the shipment arrived in tact. The Rotary titled the local books effort “Join Us on Our Journey,” and Rotary members wanted to share the thoughts of one of the book program’s coordinators, Ian Fihla, of Knysna, South Africa upon the receipt of this tremendous gift.

Fihla states in his e-mail that 2,000 books arrived and “...through the Chisago Lakes Rotary Club contribution, you have opened the doors of learning for those children... (the end of May) marked the inauguration of the fifth democratically elected president of the Republic of South Africa. The country has been liberated but the mindset of the people is not yet liberated. “It is through learning that their mindset will be liberated and they can think and make informed decisions.” He states the children will be the country’s leaders and through education, “...they will prosper and break the chains of poverty. Most of their parents never got an opportunity to get formal education and they want their children to be educated.”

The e mail goes on to say to all those who have contributed in making this possible, “...you had to go out of your way, use your own finances and equipment to make sure the project is successful. Sometimes you got frustrated ...but you persevered...when I visit the schools I would like to get some pictures of the children making use of the books and forward them to you.” Fihla concludes with, “...pass my sincere thanks to all who have participated in this historic and highly valuable donation...keep up the good work. May God bless you abundantly.”

International relations have friend in Rotary

Chisago County Press April 9, 2015

​The Chisago Lakes Rotary Club through a District 5960 matching grant, has made it possible for a South African school to purchase computers, projectors, a video camera, software for the computers and all the required cables and screen pulldowns. The Chris Nissen Primary School in Knysna, South Africa.   

The Chisago Lakes Rotary Club requested financial support for the project from seven neighboring Rotary Clubs plus a contribution from the Knysna South Africa Rotary Club to effectuate this grant. Contributing neighboring Rotary clubs included North Branch, New Brighton/Mounds View, North St. Paul/Maplewood/Oakdale, Chain of Lakes (Lino Lakes), Vadnais Heights, St. Croix Falls/Taylors Falls, and Stillwater/Sunrise.  

In order to reduce the costs of the project and support the local economy, funds were wired to the Knysna Club to purchase the equipment.  Once received, the Knysna Club worked with the government officials (principal and staff) at the Chris Nissen School to make the purchases needed and to coordinate installation of the equipment in the school.

Chris Nissen has a staff of 18 educators and 921 learners from Grade R (reception-5 years) to Grade 7 (12-13 years).  The school is located in an economically depressed area of South Africa and was built for a total school population of 500 students.  The computers and projectors will allow a greater number of students to learn at the same time as text books, class space, and teachers are insufficient.   

The Knysna Rotary Club was instrumental in making this project succeed in cooperation with the government and school officials from the Chris Nissen School.  While all of the Chisago Lakes Club was involved in the project the team leaders were Kristine Nelson Fuge, Judy Chartrand, and Joanne Sackreiter.

“Most of the Chisago Lakes club funds are directed to local projects but this grant helped to fulfill our commitment to Rotary International and our motto of “Service Above Self,” said Sackreiter.  The next fundraising event is the Chisago Lakes Golf Tournament June 9 with the proceeds benefiting Baby Blanket.  For more information about this project or  golf tournament please see  the website at www.chisagolakesrotary.org.

Reading materials arrive in Kosovo

Rotary Clubs continue their International cooperation

The local Rotary Club was featured in this paper a few weeks, with a photo of Rotary members and their shipment of books collected for Kosovo. Rotary International has been supporting efforts to construct and supply school libraries in Kosovo, and the book collecting is just one part of this initiative. The locally collected reading materials will help fill eight libraries already built.

The Rotary shipment arrived in the urban area of Prishtina, and was met by retired Tenth District Judge Linn Slattengren, of Franconia, who has grown very active in Rotary in Kosovo. He reports by e mail correspondence that he aided getting the materials through customs, and local helpers are enthusiastically distributing the shipments of reading materials. There's about 90 other libraries in various stages of planning that look forward to receiving books. And, Rotary's coordinated supply effort has only surveyed half the country, the judge said. Judge Slattengren has been living and working in the emerging nation for a few years now, first as a quasi-government advisor assisting the process of establishing a legal system.

Lately, through his involvement in the Prishtina, Kosovo Rotary he's been working on raising funds for acquiring a leukemia testing apparatus and installing water wells at school sites.