Geelong East Rotary is a proud supporter of the Story Dogs program and provides funding for dogs and their owners to attend Newcomb Primary School and Tate Street Primary School each week during the school year. The accepting, loving nature of dogs gives this reading program its magic. Reading to a friendly, calm dog in a non-judgmental environment helps children relax, open up, have fun while reading and become confident readers in the future.
On 28 July 2024 I participated in a Story Dogs book covering workshop at the South Barwon Community Centre, along with other Rotarians. It was a great example of Rotary in action as most of the 250 children’s books to be cleaned and covered had been donated to Story Dogs by Geelong West Rotary just prior to their giant book sale.
There were four workstations – cleaning, adding labels, cutting and covering. For many Rotarians it had been decades since they had wrestled with Contact to cover their children’s schoolbooks. There is a real art to producing a perfectly smooth finish.
The following Clubs were represented:
Geelong East – Jenny Acopian
Bayside Geelong – Telsa
Highton – Pam
Kardinia – Keith & Heather Fagg, Leonie, Debbie, Min, Graham Hobbs
Story Dogs Volunteers: Bri, Sheryle, Leanne. Karen & Vanessa were also on hand.
We encourage other Rotarians to get involved with the program – and there will be other opportunities as over 600 books are required by the program each year in the Geelong region alone.
