- November 15, 2024
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Sandra McDermott, from the Flagler Beach Rotary, got into the spirit of creating posters with Holden Amaturo, treasurer of the club. Photo Jacque Estes
Laura Schiller stands with the Early Act Club at Old Kings Elementary. The club has six official members, but students who get to school early, also stopped in to help. Photo Jacque Estes
Cayden Loftus creates a poster for Read to Feed. Photo Jacque Estes
Kailee Smith, Early Act secretary, takes meeting notes. Photo Jacque Estes
Brooklynn Tietje, president of Early Act, calls a meeting to order. Photo Jacque Estes
It is 8 a.m. Tuesday morning and students are taking their seats in Laura Schiller's classroom at Old Kings Elementary. The rest of their classmates won't be arriving for another 45 minutes. The early risers will spend their time on their Early Act project and hopefully make a difference in the lives of some people they will never meet.
President Brooklynn Tietje taps the desk bell several times to call the meeting to order. Secretary, Kailee Smith is busy recording the meeting minutes in her spiral notebook. The meeting starts with the Pledge of Allegiance, and then they get down to business.
“I really wanted to be in a group with all of my friends, and thought it would be nice to do good things for the community, too,” Brooklynn said.
There are adults in the room, Sandra McDermott from Flagler Beach Rotary, and a couple of mothers, along with Schiller, but they are only observers. This is the student's club, and their project.
At this meeting the group worked on posters to advertise “Read to Feed,” a school-wide reading program they are sponsoring to raise money, to purchase an animal through Heifer International for a village in need.
Anyone can make a monetary pledge toward a certain amount of pages, or books, they plan to read between Jan. 25 and Feb. 12 – an appropriate time since it coincides with Literacy Week, and Flagler Reads.
“From 9:40 to 10 on Thursday morning everyone will stop and read,” Schiller said. “Its the perfect time to log some reading time.”
The club's first project was to create posters to display around the school advertising the project. Everyone grabbed paper and markers and began creating.
Implementing an Early Act Club in Flagler County has been something McDermott has wanted to do for several years.
“Rotary International has been doing this a few years; but this is the first year for Flagler County,” she said. “We are grooming kids to be future leaders and volunteers.”
InterAct, a Rotary school club for older students, has 43 members at Matanzas High School. Once the OKES program is established, McDermott expects the older students will be working with the younger club.
“This group has hit the ground running. They have already had a beach cleanup, Stop Hunger Now, and now Read to Feed,” McDermott said.
Schiller is hoping word will get out about the new club, and more students will want to make the commitment to come in early every Tuesday. A recruiting project is underway to make a movie about the club.
Although their current project has just begun, they are looking to the future and their next project, Socks for the Homeless, and the collection of new and very gently used socks.
