This school year, volunteers from two local Rotary clubs — Brunswick and Brunswick Coastal — have been visiting three classrooms at Coffin Elementary School to marvel as youngsters show off their reading skills. We call ourselves Reading Friends, and we take great pleasure in living out Rotary International’s famous slogan, “Service Above Self.”

As with all such Rotary projects, the reward is beyond measure. Imagine yourself appearing at the door of, say, a 2nd-grade classroom and watching the hands shoot up as the kids vie for a chance to demonstrate how smart they are. What drives the youngsters is the fact that an adult other than a teacher or a close relative cares enough about their reading ability to witness what they’ve accomplished and help out as needed.

Does it make a difference? You bet it does. Being part of one of the most admired international service organizations, I looked beyond the U.S. for some backing and found these 10 reasons to encourage early reading, thanks to a school in England:

1. Children who read often and widely get better at it — yet another example of practice makes perfect.

2. Reading exercises our brain. It’s much more complex than watching television, for example, while strengthening brain connections and building new ones.

3. Reading improves concentration as kids develop the skills to sit quietly and focus.

4. Reading teaches children about the world around them — people, places, and events outside their own experiences.

5. It improves vocabulary and proficiency as readers absorb proper sentence structure, punctuation, and other language skills.

6. Reading develops the imagination. As they read a story, kids imagine how the character is feeling and bring that into their everyday play and learning.

7. Reading helps them develop empathy, openness to how others feel.

8. It’s fun. A book is compact, and easy to carry around. I tell my little friends: “You’re never alone when you read.”

9. Reading is a great way to spend time together, on the sofa or at bedtime.

10. Good readers do better across the curriculum.

On that last note, I’ve seen statistics that are hard to ignore: Children who don’t read at 3rd-grade level by 3rd-grade are four times more likely not to graduate from high school by age 19.

What we do fits in nicely with Rotary International’s six areas of focus:

• Peace and conflict prevention and resolution

• Disease prevention and treatment

• Clean water and sanitation

• Maternal and child health

• Basic education and literacy

• Economic and community development

To quote Rotary

International itself: “Rotary International is an international service organization whose stated purpose is to bring together business and professional leaders in order to provide humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and to advance goodwill and peace around the world. It is a nonpolitical and non-sectarian organization open to all people regardless of race, color, creed, religion, gender, or political preference.”

You are welcome to attend meetings of Brunswick Coastal Rotary and Brunswick Rotary, two of 34,282 such clubs worldwide. The Brunswick club gathers at The Daniel, 10 Water St., Brunswick, at noon Mondays. Meetings consist of lunch, a speaker, and club fellowship. For more information, go to www.brunswickmainerotary.org . Brunswick Coastal meets at 6 p.m. Wednesdays at the Fairground Cafe, Topsham Mall. The president is Linda Collins, and you can find us on Facebook. Both clubs are always looking for community-minded visitors and members, perhaps even people who want to help our kids discover the joy of reading.

Dave Griffiths is a member of Brunswick Coastal Rotary.