The Ellicott City Rotary Club and Rotary Club of Columbia Town Center collaborated to raise almost $5,000 for the Community Action Council of Howard County (CAC), to purchase iPads for CAC’s early childhood education classrooms. The iPads will be presented in a ceremony on Thursday, January 23, 2020 at Dasher Green Early Childhood Education Center (6680 Cradlerock Way, Columbia, MD). The ceremony will also formally launch a year-round volunteer partnership between the Community Action Council of Howard County and all seven Howard County rotary clubs.

“We are grateful for the incredible support that the Howard County Rotary Clubs provide to our programs,” said Bita Dayhoff, president of the Community Action Council of Howard County, “Their support brings our community together and creates change in the lives of both children and their parents.”

CAC’s early childhood education program enrolls three, four and five-year-old children each year and is offered at four centers across Howard County, serving 322 students annually. The program, which encompasses both Head Start and Pre-K, is designed to prepare students socially, emotionally and academically for kindergarten.

The iPads will allow teachers to track attendance, as well as each child’s progress in meeting educational objectives, while staying connected with their students.

“While each of Howard County’s Rotary Clubs has an individual identity and priorities, they all adhere to Rotary’s goal of ‘Service Above Self’,” said Temrah Okonski, president of the Ellicott City Rotary Club, “We each also live by Rotary International’s mission: ‘Together we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change—across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves’.”

Community Action Council of Howard County (CAC) was established in 1965 as Howard County’s designated anti-poverty agency. Our mission is to diminish poverty, enable self-sufficiency and advocate for low-income families and individuals. CAC serves more than 35,000 individuals each year with food, housing, energy and weatherization assistance as well as early childhood education programs. For more information about CAC, visit www.cac-hc.org or visit us on Facebook and Twitter.