Walnut Rotary’s Sept. 17 Cookout to benefit Walnut Public Library

Walnut Rotary Club President Jan Pistole has announced that one-half of the proceeds from the club’s upcoming cookout will be used to purchase books for the Walnut Public Library.

The cookout will be from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17, at the Veterans’ Memorial. Donations will be accepted.

“Rotary District 6420, of which the Walnut Rotary is a part, has established a District-side service project intended to increase the number of new books available in libraries throughout the District,” Pistole said. “It is the goal of the project that a new book will be donated for each Rotarian, resulting in at least 1400 new books in area libraries. The Walnut Club has committed to purchasing at least 46 new books for the Walnut Public Library: Two for each of the Club’s current members.”

The Rotary Club of Walnut has long been a strong and active proponent of literacy projects in the community has it first supplied Birthday Books to each K through eighth grade student in the Bureau Valley school in 2017, until books finally ran out at the end of the 2021-22 school year.

The Club has reinstated the Birthday Book program and funded it for the 2022-23 and 2023 -24 school years.

“One of Rotary International’s Seven Avenues of Service is literacy,” Pistole said. “Our goal is to strengthen the capacity of communities to support basic education and literacy, reduce gender disparity in education and increase adult literacy. We support education for all children and literacy for children and adults.”

“This initiative, which permits libraries to select books for any age of reader and may include large-print books, furthers Rotary’s objective to increase literacy in people of all ages.”

Walnut Rotarians will be serving pork chop sandwiches, brats and hot dogs, along with chips and bottled water.

The Rotary Club of Walnut meets six times a month at the Walnut Cafe. For information on how to become a member, email Pistole at jan@sunsetridgemx.com.