If you are driven to help eradicate illiteracy, the Rotary Club of Tucson has mapped an easy route: Visit the Fifth Annual Tucson Classics Car Show to benefit Reading Seed and other local charities.
"With Rotary Club of Tucson, we have a big interest in helping children and the elderly in the community, and through Reading Seed we can see the children improve and see the direct results of our efforts," said Marianne Freitas, a past president of the Rotary Club of Tucson.
"Everyone who works (at the show) is a volunteer, so nothing goes to overhead. All proceeds go directly to charity. We have 230 members, and lots of friends and family members come to help us, so it is really a community effort."
Tucson Classics has become the signature fundraiser of Rotary Club of Tucson, which had its 90th anniversary in April.
People are also reading…
The event has raised nearly $300,000 for Reading Seed since its inception. Rotary Club members also have donated thousands of hours in one-on-one coaching for children in local elementary schools, according to Reading Seed Executive Director Elizabeth Campbell.
The Rotary Club of Tucson has raised about $500,000 overall for Reading Seed since 2004, Campbell said.
Reading Seed places volunteers in 100 area schools, serving 2,500 children through individual mentoring for 30 minutes twice a week in an effort to boost literacy before the students reach fourth grade, when reading becomes increasingly crucial to comprehension and learning in other subjects.
Campbell views literacy as a communitywide commitment, as evidenced by the recent merger of Reading Seed and four other local organizations - Literacy Volunteers of Tucson, Reach Out and Read Southern Arizona, Literacy for Life Coalition and Stories That Soar! - to form Literacy Connects.
Literacy Connects is dedicated to promoting literacy in all forms, from reading to computer skills and English acquisition. It seeks to create opportunities and provide resources to support the learning goals of people from birth through adulthood.
With some 450 classic, foreign, luxury and specialty cars, street rods and trucks, Tucson Classics is the largest of 16 fall car shows staged locally and the only one that offers cash awards for first place in each class along with plaques, according to Jon Wang, past chairman of the event.
If you go
What: Fifth Annual Tucson Classics Car Show to benefit Reading Seed and other local charities.
When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Where: St. Gregory College Preparatory School, 3231 N. Craycroft Road.
Cost: $5 for adults; free for those 18 and under when accompanied by an adult.
Et cetera: Admission includes entry to the show featuring 450 classic cars, live entertainment, activities for kids, food vendors, car-related vendors, craft booths and a ticket for the raffle of a rare, low-mileage 2002 Chevy Corvette convertible or $10,000 cash. You need not be present to win, but the winner must be at least 18 years of age.
For more information or to buy a ticket, go to www.tucsonclassicscarshow.com. The phone number is 440-4503. To find out more about becoming a volunteer reading coach for Reading Seed, visit the Literacy Connects website at http://literacyconnects.org and click on the Reading Seed icon or call 798-0700.
Contact freelance writer Loni Nannini at ninch2@comcast.net.
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