The Mesquite Rotary Club presented a donation of $3,000 to the Mesquite Association of Retired School Employees book project at their meeting on November 29th
In accepting the check from Rotary president Jones Doughton, MARSE president Stephanie Wiley expressed her thanks for Rotary’s financial support and volunteer assistance. MARSE book project chair Susan Cumby added her thanks for the increased donation, and noted that the funds would greatly support the project’s goal of providing a book of their own to each Mesquite ISD first grader. She also discussed the recent inflation that has been seen in the cost of the books, and announced that the Mesquite Elks Lodge Auxiliary has recently joined in support of the project with a donation of $1,000.
The MARSE book project has been an ongoing commitment since 1999. Each year they have been able to provide an increasing number of MISD first grade students with their own "take home" book. The books are new ones, and they are specially selected to coordinate with the children’s reading curriculum in their schools. The project is designed to promote the love of reading, the development of students’ personal book collections, and to assist in the development of the students’ reading skills. The Mesquite Rotary Club’s $3,000 donation, added to the $1,000 from the Mesquite Elks Lodge Auxiliary and the funds donated by MARSE members, will allow the project to again provide books to all of the first graders at each Mesquite ISD elementary school.