The READ (Rotary Educational Aid Donation) Project of RI District 7560, TN-VA, USA for disadvantaged public schools in Quezon City (RI District 3780) is a story of how Rotary touches the hearts of people to do thru the years.
In RY 1986-87, then PDG now Past RI Director Edgar C. Hatcher, Jr. , a dental practitioner in Bristol, Tennessee, USA, led a GSE Team (Group Study Exchange) to D-3780, and in the course of that 45-day visit, PDG Ed met and developed special friendships with Quezon City Rotarians , among whom were Judge Lorenzo B. Veneracion and Gaston "Gas" L. Gonzalez. It came to pass that some years later, Judge Lore and PP gas were involved in the construction od the Rotary Soup Kitchen, Food Bank and Training Center in the most disadvantaged communities of Quezon City, the Payatas district.
Sometime in 1994, PDG Ed informed Judge Lore that he was able to get an allocation of US $15,000 which can support matching grant projects to establish the medial and dental clinic at the proposed Soup Kitchen. Judge Lore in cooperation with PP Gas, who was then the president of RC Quezon Cirt North submitted and implemented the matching grant projects and established the medical and dental clinic which was inaugurated on April 5, 1995. For this occasion, PDG Ed, together with three other Rotarians from D-7570 arrived to officiate in the inauguration of the medial and dental clinic.
RY 1996-1997
Dr. Daniel Schumaier, 1996097 president of the Rotary Club of Johnson City, in his visit to Payatas Dumpit area, were so touched by the poverty of the community and decided to provide assistance. Encouraged by Ms. Cindy Smith, a member of the GSE team of RIPD Ed, who was collecting books and sending them to different schools in the Cagayan Valley, Dr. Dan Schumaier proposed to then District Governor Thomas "Tom" Todd, 1996-97, the idea to donate books. Fortunately, DG Tom adopted it as a district project - all 4,500 Rotarians of D-7570 were requested to donate 20 pounds of books each, so a total of 90,000 pounds of books were collected that year which was loaded in two 40 foot container vans. Matching Grant No. 6643 was secured from The Rotary Foundation in cooperation with then district Governor Manoling Monroy. The Rotary Club of Quezon City North through then President Gaston "Gas" L. Gonzalez and CP Judge Lorenzo B. Veneracion coordinated the distribution of the 90,000 pounds of books to the different public schools in Quezon City. The formal turnover ceremonies were held on 6 January 1997 officiated by DG Thomas "Tom" Todd, his Ann Vivian and Dr. Dan Schumaier, at the Quezon City Hall participated in by then Mayor Ismael Mathay, Jr.
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