Connecticut loves to read and Derby-Shelton Rotarians are doing their bit to make sure that it continues. As they do every year, Rotarians visited schools to read to students in kindergarten through grade 3 during April. They brought along books to read to the students and leave behind for the schools’ libraries.

Here’s a list of the schools and the Rotarians who did the reading:

Booth Hill School – Liza Gambino and Kim Ryan-Caro

Irving School – Pat Tarasovic, Joe & JoAnn Shapiro

Elizabeth Shelton School – Gary Scarpa

Long Hill School – Sharon Herman & Lucy Andrade

Sunnyside School – Gayle Kreho

Bradley School – Linda Holmes-Hannon and Lorraine Inzerra

St. Mary’s/St. Michael’s – Jack Walsh

Derby-Shelton Rotarians are out in force once again bringing the joy of reading to students in kindergarten and grades 1-3 in Derby and Shelton Schools as part of Connecticut Loves to Read. This year there’s a special “peace” theme to the readings in line with the club being a Peacebuilder Club of the Rotary Action Group for Peace. Kim Ryan-Caro once again coordinated the project.

Participating Rotarians and their schools:

Liza Gambino – Booth Hill school

Carolyn Dow – Mohegan school

Ernie Luise – Holy Trinity Catholic Academy

Jack Walsh – St. Mary/Saint Michael

Joe and Joann Shapiro and Gary Scarpa – Elizabeth Shelton School

Lucy Andrade – Long Hill school.

Linda Holmes – Bradley school.

Sharon Herman and Lorraine Inzerra – Irving school.

Gayle Kreho – Sunnyside School – Gayle is pinch hitting for Lynda Reid

St. Mary-St. Michael School
St. Mary-St. Michael School	St. Mary-St. Michael School
Elizabeth Shelton School	Holy Trinity

2024 books being read by Rotarians

Connecticut Loves to Read – and so do Derby-Shelton Rotarians as they are once again fanning out across schools in Derby and Shelton to read to students in Kindergarten through Grade 3.

This year’s readers and their schools are:

Carolyn Dow, Mohegan School

Ernie Luise, Holy Trinity Catholic Academy

Jack Walsh, Saint Mary/Saint Michael School

Pat Tarasovic, Irving School

Joe and Joann Shapiro, Elizabeth Shelton School

Judy Gulish, Long Hill School

Lynda Reid and Lorraine Inzerra, Sunnyside School

Linda Holmes-Hannon, Bradley School

Looks like these students at St. Mary/St. Michael School in Derby are thrilled with their new dictionaries!

Derby-Shelton Rotary kept up a long-standing tradition over the last few weeks by visiting all the third-grade classrooms in the public and private schools in Derby and Shelton to deliver a special gift to all of the students. That gift was their very own dictionary.

The following schools received a total of 506 dictionaries this year:

Booth Hill
Elizabeth Shelton
Long Hill
Mohegan
Sunnyside
Holy Trinity Catholic Academy
St. Mary/St. Michael
Bradley
Irving

A special thanks to Linda Homes-Hannon who coordinated the project and to  Joe & Joanne Shapiro, Lucy Andrade, Carolyn Dow, Ernie Luise, Jack Walsh, Felicia Monaco and Linda for delivering the books and visiting with the children.

Derby-Shelton Rotary has been doing this project since the 2002-2003 year when president Mike Santa brought the idea to the club. Over that time the club has distributed thousands of books to help students improve their reading and vocabulary skills.

Students at St. Mary/St. Michael School in Derby

Rotarians have returned to the classroom over the last month to read and donate books to Kindergarten and grades 1, 2 and 3 in Derby Shelton. This is the Club’s annual participation in the Read Across America effort. Though the official day for the event was March 2 this year, Club members spread the duties over several weeks in getting to so many classrooms in Derby and Shelton. The national date for the event comes from the birthdate of Theodor Seuss Geisel, the author of the Dr. Seuss books. Kim Caro coordinate the program and selected the books that Rotarians read to the classes and then left behind for the libraries in each of the schools.

Rotarians who read this year included:

Pat Tarasaovic – Irving School

Ernie Luise – Holy Trinity

Phoebe Gonzales and Rosemary Allen – Mohegan School

Lorraine Inzerra  and Kim Caro – Booth Hill School

Mike Wynne – Sunnyside School

Jack Walsh – St. Mary/St. Michael School

Matt McGee and Linda Holmes-Hannon – Bradley School

Jack Walsh celebrated the schools that he graduated from (St. Mary’s) and UConn while reading to the students

One of the favorite programs of Derby-Shelton Rotarians has been their participation in the Read Across America Program. Rotarians have been visiting the lower grades in schools in Derby in Shelton for years to read to students and then to donate the books to the school libraries. VOVID made in-person visits impractical though books were still donated. Things are getting back to normal and Rotarians have returned to the classrooms. Kim Ryan Caro is coordinating the program as she has done for years and a number of Rotarians have already made visits to read and more will be doing so in the next few weeks. Here’s just a partial listing:

Bradley School – Linda Homes-Hannon
St. Mary’s – St. Michael’s – Jack Walsh
Irving School – Pat Tarasovic
Holy Trinity Catholic Academy – Ernie Luise
Elizabeth Shelton School – Vickie Kirn, Sue Paul, Joe and Joanne Shapiro
Long Hill School – Rosemary Allen and John Zseller
Booth Hill School – Lucy Andrade
Sunnyside School – Linda Homes-Hannon & others
Booth Hill – Lucy Andrade and Shelton High seniors Alysa Jardim & Rosie McGrath

This year the schools that will be receiving the books for their students include:

Rotarians gearing up for dictionary distribution.

Kim Ryan-Caro is once again coordinating Derby-Shelton Rotary’s participation in the Read Across America program. Many members are involved in visiting elementary schools in Derby and Shelton to read the books pictured above and to then donate the books to the schools. This is an annual event for Derby-Shelton Rotary and we’ll post a complete list of schools and readers as soon as the list is completed.

The Club has participated in this project for many years now and Rotarians visit each of the third grades in the two towns to hand deliver dictionaries to the students and to discuss the importance of reading and the role that the dictionaries can play in helping them. This year, the Club will distribute 446 of the dictionaries specifically designed for student use to students and an additional 24 to their classroom teachers. A special thanks goes to Kim Ryan Caro who is coordinating the project once again this year.

Jack Walsh and Arlene Greco were just two of this year’s readers.

Members of the Derby-Shelton Rotary Club spent a lot of time in classrooms in schools in Derby and Shelton in recent weeks participating in the Read Across America Program. Rotarians had a lot of fun reading to children in Kindergarten through Grade 3 in the following schools:

Booth Hill
Elizabeth Shelton
Long Hill
Mohegan
Sunnyside
St. Lawrence

Bradley
Irving
St. Mary-St. Michael

The following Rotarians read this year: Doug LaMonte, Chris Clouet, Judy Gulish, Justyna Januck, Tom Wilson, Drew Scott, Lisa Bisson, Arlene Greco, Shawna Vallilo, Julie Blakeman, Shaye Roscoe, Jen Champagne, Pat Carey, Jen Champagne, George Howe, Joanne   , Ernie Luise,  Silvia Rodriguez, Linda Holmes, Cindy Rinaldi, Pat Tarasovic, Diane Stroman, Jack Walsh and John Zseller.

The Club purchased the age-appropriate books for each class and the readers left the books behind for future enjoyment for the students.