Knoxville
Tennessee
St. Elizabeth's Episcopal Church
March Gift of the Month
Two Reading Programs
Many of us who love to read are aware that it opens doors to new worlds and ideas. Additionally, reading levels correlate with how well we communicate with others. Good reading skills translate to improvement in other cognitive learning skills. Therefore, reading affects not only how well we do in school but also later in life outside the classroom. It is interesting to note that hearing books read aloud is almost as effective as reading to oneself. All this to say, reading is fun and important!
It’s hard for most of us to imagine many children in our area grow up without books in the home. With this in mind, many schools and youth programs are encouraging independent reading. That doesn’t mean reading a boring textbook; it means reading for pleasure, which is as valuable in childhood development as academic classwork is.
How we can help:
- The Knoxville Police Department has developed a mentoring program between officers and inner city children. Currently 96 children spend time each week reading with an officer. The purpose is twofold: 1) To develop that love of reading that translates to better school skills, but also 2) for these children to learn cops are good guys! The program started in January and already many children have read several books.This program has funds to purchase books, but would like to offer some incentive gifts. They are asking for two items:
$5 McDonald’s Gift Cards
- Girl Scout Troop 21101 is working on a reading program for the Oak Ridge Boys and Girls Club. You probably have seen their poster as they work toward their scouting Silver Award. The goal is to collect 1,000 books for the Oak Ridge Boys and Girls Club. So far they are about a quarter the way to their goal. You have probably also seen some of the scouts selling bookmarks trying to raise $500 for the B&G Club. You can help them by providing