Recently, The Roswell Junior Woman’s Club (RJWC) presented Roswell North Elementary School (RNE) with a check for $700 for their Accelerated Reader (AR) program. The RJWC is a volunteer organization made up of women from Roswell and surrounding areas dedicated to serving their community. The club annually provides more than 2,500 volunteer hours and $10,000 for community projects.

RJWC is a part of an international organization, The General Federation of Women’s Clubs, representing more than 11 million women in 55 countries around the world. Junior members have designed a special project, Advocates for Children, that encourages members to become active advocates for children by working to protect children from harmful situations, encourage healthy lifestyles and help to give children a brighter future through reading.

The Roswell Junior Woman’s Club encourages community involvement, education and social interaction among its members. They are united by a dedication to community improvement through volunteer service.

Roswell North Elementary School is one of Roswell’s award winning schools, located adjacent to Roswell Area Park on Woodstock Road. Accelerated Reader (AR) is a daily progress monitoring software assessment in wide use by primary and secondary schools for monitoring the practice of reading, and it is created by Renaissance Learning, Inc.

Martha Powell, Media Center Director at RNE, uses grants, donations, book fair revenue and a magazine sales fundraiser to fund the AR program at RNE. Students read a book from their target level and then take an online test. The more questions the student gets right, the more points they earn toward recognition prizes. The student’s first prize is a ball cap, which you can see on the heads of many students on Fridays. Additional prizes are buttons that are added to the hat to signify completion of target levels.

The students gain confidence in reading as they are recognized and encouraged by the AR program.