Greater Big Spring Rotary promoting perfect attendance in area schools with bike giveaways
Encouraging students to pursue and fully engage in their education is one of the many focuses the Greater Big Spring Rotary Club has in the Big Spring community. For the past 10 years, the club has been encouraging students when it comes to education and providing bicycles to two lucky students at each Big Spring ISD elementary campus as a reward for perfect attendance.
“As a club we want to help promote education, and help students understand the importance of a good education,” Debbye Val-Verde, Greater Big Spring Rotary Club Secretary, said.
At the end of each semester, at the respective campuses, students with perfect attendance get their name placed into a bucket to have an opportunity to take home a new bike. At each of the Big Spring ISD elementary campuses, two winners are selected at random.
“It’s great way for our club to be involved with our local school district and help encourage the
youth in the community. We are blessed to be able to provide these bicycles to the students each semester and see their faces when they are presented with the bikes,” Troy Tompkins, Greater Big Spring Rotary Club member, said.
A few years ago, the Greater Big Spring Rotary Club expanded the outreach program to the Intermediate School and offered water park passes and movie passes. In addition, the bike giveaways were also extended to Coahoma and Forsan ISDS as well.
In addition to the bike giveaways, the GBSRC also sponsors the annual fishing tournament to help encourage kids to get outside while providing families an opportunity to make memories together in our local park.
“The youth of our community is our future, and the more we can invest into them and support them, the brighter their future and the community's future will look,” Valverde said.
Hayley Herrera, Service Project Chair for Greater Big Spring Rotary added, “This year has been a different year for everyone, especially for the youth in our community. As families began adjusting to social distancing measures in the schools and virtual learning opportunities, we wanted to make sure we didn't leave out those who were virtual learning and helping to slow the spread. We wanted to make sure those students were included in these drawings as well because while they may have been doing virtual learning, they have still been completing their school work and showing up in an unprecedented time.”
To find out how to become a member of the Greater Big Spring Rotary Club or help support their efforts, reach out to any of the club members.