This Past Week at Holland Rotary...

David Nyitray from Ready For School discussed the positive impact Ready for School is having with kids in the Holland, Zeeland, and Hamilton area.

Pictured Above:  David Nyitray and Linda Jacobs

David Nyitray discussed the organization's history and impact.  In 2008, our community recognized early childhood education as the single-most important challenge facing our present and future development. At that time, less than half of our community's children were ready for school when they entered kindergarten at age five. In response to the critical need to address this challenge the Ready for School initiative was launched. Ready for School is a broadly based Holland/Zeeland community initiative ensuring that every child from birth enters kindergarten prepared to succeed. The overarching principles of the initiative are:

Our entrepreneurial model must engage all sectors of the community
Our strategies must be data driven and employ evidence based practices
We must apply sound business principles and achieve measurable results

Our army of volunteers is made up of 11 task forces/committees designed to expand outreach, develop a sustainable support base, and to communicate the importance of investing in every child. The task force work plans are aligned with one of three objectives:

Engage and inform parents
Enhance existing programming
Expand early learning opportunities.

For more information or to get involved, please visit
http://www.readyforschool.org/