RB Sunrise Rotary Doesn’t Understand the word “NO”

Determined to continue improving lives at every age and income level throughout the community, 20 volunteers from the Rancho Bernardo Sunrise Rotary Club recently fanned out across area elementary schools to distribute free dictionaries to third graders.

“We organize this effort in cooperation with the SoCal Dictionary Project,” reports club president Rick Coburn. SoCal DP is dedicated to providing free English and Spanish/English bilingual dictionaries to all third grade students in the nation’s public schools. “We are very proud to have been involved in this excellent effort.” says Coburn, noting this is the ninth year the RB Sunrise Club has worked with area schools in this way.

Each year RB Sunrise Rotary distributes almost 1,350 dictionaries – one for every third grader at 11 San Diego-area elementary schools. The money used to sponsor this year’s program was raised during the club’s 2011 holiday campaign, an annual event that uses a full-page ad in area newspapers to thank the generosity of area individuals and businesses responsible for donating tens of thousands of dollars to help make North County a better place to live. RB Sunrise Rotary returns every dollar to the community through programs like the Dictionary Project.

Children at Dingeman, Ericson, Hage, Hickman, Jerabek, Mason, Midland, Painted Rock, Park Village, Valley, and Walker elementary schools benefited from the dictionary program. Coburn reports efforts are already underway to raise money for next year’s dictionary campaign.

About Rancho Bernardo Sunrise Rotary: The RB Sunrise Rotary is a group of professional men and women dedicated to service above self. They meet each Tuesday morning at 7:00 am at the Country Club of Rancho Bernardo, 12280 Greens East Road, San Diego, CA 92128. Prospective members are invited to attend a meeting as a guest.

Each club meeting includes a speaker addressing items of interest in business, politics, finance, and the world at-large. Speakers begin their presentations at 8:00 am. Members of the public are invited to attend these meetings at no charge if staying for just the speaker. A $15 fee will be charged to those staying for breakfast.

The Rancho Bernardo Sunrise Rotary club itself can be found online at http://www.rbsunrise.org/.

Rotarians Harold Dokmo (white shirt, standing, right) and Michael Rennie (teal shirt, beard, right) left Ericson Elementary with a whole new bunch of friends. The kids have been sending in thank you notes without a spelling error in sight.