Our guest speak­ers for today’s meet­ing were Jean and Doug Chad­wick from the Kiwa­nis Lit­er­a­cy Club of South­ern Cal­i­for­nia, along with Gov­er­nor Steven West­phal of the Utah-Ida­ho District.

Jean shared with us the impor­tance of read­ing to her, as she over­came great obsta­cles in her ear­ly years. After being aban­doned by her par­ents, even­tu­al­ly anoth­er fam­i­ly wel­comed her into their home. She dis­cov­ered the won­der of books and the inspi­ra­tion they provide. 

Jean took us on a vir­tu­al tour of their book inven­to­ry store­house (their garage) to explain the need for hav­ing a large num­ber of books on hand to fill the orders as they come in.

Doug spoke about the lend­ing library book box pro­gram that first began in a police sta­tion. Since then, 150 libraries have been cre­at­ed. Each unique book box is $1250 and it comes with 200 books as well. Enjoy! Share! Repeat!

Doug went on to say that they pre­sent­ed infor­ma­tion about their book pro­gram at the 2017 Cal­Ne­va DCON. While at the Kiwa­nis Club of Bur­bank Cal­i­for­nia, they were invit­ed to join the Kiwa­nis fam­i­ly. They formed the sin­gle focus Kiwa­nis Club. Since then, five more lit­er­a­cy clubs have been start­ed. Despite the pan­dem­ic, since March of this year, 52 000 books have been distributed. 

Gov­er­nor Steve spoke about the 10 000 books that his Dis­trict has pledged to give to their 50 clubs. He has asked clubs to be sure to include a min­i­mum of $400 in their annu­al bud­get to con­tin­ue the book pro­gram. His Dis­trict is excit­ed to part­ner with the Lit­er­a­cy Club to help chil­dren, where for $2, a child will receive a book to keep with the spon­sor’s label inside.

We thank them for help­ing chil­dren dis­cov­er the super pow­er of reading!