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SUCCESS STORY:
Once Maison found out that he
could par t icipate in the The
Patterson Foundation “2017 Summer
Book Challenge” at the READ UNITED
Reading Room at La Mirada Apartments,
he was thrilled!
books together with older children, or
with United Way Suncoast ReadingPals
volunteers, he would earn reward
year-old boy of two working
parents, soon began
bringing books to
almost anyone who
walked through
the door so
h e c o u l d
increase the
number of
books he read
- documenting
all with a teacher, or a ReadingPals helper into the “Summer
Book Challenge.”
According to the Reading Journal, Maison read 27 books over
the summer. At the graduation ceremony, I congratulated Maison
and told his parents how much he enjoyed reading. Maison then
started to shake his head back and forth, looked me in the eye,
What Maison had done through his own self-motivation was to
take books home from the Reading Room to read at night with his
sister and parents. Maison developed a love for reading which
will forever impact his life, and learned to count to 50.
Maison, who along with his three-year-old old sister Kylea had
perfect attendance at the Reading Room at La Mirada this
summer, participated in seven weeks - 125 hours - of themed
programming, crafts, outdoor activities, and enrichment
opportunities provided in partnership with The Manatee
County Library.
Maison entered kindergarten in the 2017-2018 academic school
year.
We Are Making Progress!
The Suncoast Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (SCGLR)
held its 2nd Annual SCGLR Community Update Breakfast on
Thursday, October 5, 2017. Debra Jacobs, President and CEO
of The Patterson Foundation, spoke, and below are some key
* A child learns to read through 3rd grade, and they read to learn
4th grade, they are looking around realizing everyone is moving
on ahead of them.
* The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading translates to both a
moral and economic imperative. Every child deserves a chance
to be successful, and prisons are expensive. Nobel Prize winner
James Heckman reminds us that for every dollar invested in early
childhood development, the return on investment for society
is $7.60.
* The SCGLR journey is now celebrating its 2nd anniversary -
kudos to everyone who puts individual agenda aside and works
together for the children and families in our region. Plus, there is
that extra pride point of demonstrating that indeed we can work
across county lines when we align our values for impact.
•
More than 19,000!
•
of the elementary schools in our region have more than 80%
of their student’s hunger-challenged.
• What percentage of children are missing more than 10% of
These are mind-warping statistics - but WE ARE making
progress!
Both Manatee and Sarasota schools improved three percentage
points over the last year in third grade
reading scores- this is because of the
many threads woven together with focus.
You can see our journey is long. But,
if we can work together, we can make
sure it is a journey that leads to our local
children succeeding!