The Rotary Club of Moose Jaw Wakamow was celebrating this month, as they won the Zone 24 Literacy Award.

"We've received district awards before but the zone award is quite significant," explained President of the Rotary Club of Moose Jaw Wakamow Glen Hagel. "The zone includes all of Canada, Eastern Russia and a few of the American states, and so to be recognized at that level I think speaks well for the engagement of the Moose Jaw Wakamow Rotary Club in literacy."

The award goes to a club who best promotes literacy, and they've managed to do that not only in Moose Jaw but in Guatemala also. There, they support two elementary schools in a mountain area where only twenty percent of the population has a grade 6 education. Which is why they not only help the schools but sponsor grade 7 to 12 scholarships in the area too.

Locally they contribute to many literacy programs. Such as the Moose Jaw Public Library, The Festival of Words, The Summer Literacy Camp, and numerous scholarships.

"If you can read effectively, you can learn more easily, you can increase your education," Hagel said. "Whether that's formally or in other ways as you grow older and I think the bottom line is that it's often true that people who can read well have a lot better chance to have a happy and satisfying life."