Downes Homework Club
At a local elementary school, the Downes Homework Club works with 3rd & 4th graders after several days a week to provide one-on-one assistance with completing their assignments. After school, Rotarians and Newark P&R staff help kids with spelling, math & reading that sometimes struggle with their schoolwork. Newark Morning Rotary provides funding for the project, along with many volunteers. Our members find the couple of hours with the kids incredibly rewarding, and the students, teachers and parents are grateful for the help.
Dictionaries
Ever October, NMR delivers Dictionaries to 3rd grade students throughout Newark. Our members purchase student dictionaries, and personally deliver them to over 40 classrooms. During our visit, we discuss how useful dictionaries can be, and walk students through finding words and reading their definitions (like “Truth”), looking up facts about states, planets and other things of interest, and let them try to pronounce the longest word in the English language. The dictionaries are gifts, and are the students to keep. In many cases, the students tell us the dictionary is the first book that they ever personally owned!
Leaf Raking Project
Every November, NMR takes to the streets with our Leaf Raking Project. With the help of community assistance programs, we identify people who are unable to rake their own leaves, and can’t afford to pay someone to do it. Many of the folks we help are homebound and completely dependent on others. Our members arrive with rakes, blowers and bags, clean up their entire yard, and dispose of the bagged leaves. And to prove no sacrifice is too great, we often enjoy donuts before we start, and gather for lunch and a beverage or two after we’ve completed our work.