FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MAYORS BOOK CLUB EXPANDS, KICKS OFF FOR 2011-2012

The Mayors Book Club is a partnership between Hampton and Newport News and is designed to help get children ready to read by kindergarten.

The Mayors Book Club, an initiative started by the City of Hampton and Mayor Molly Ward in 2008, expands this year to Newport News. The regional partnership is designed to help get children ready to read by kindergarten.

On Oct. 6, volunteers will read to more than 6,000 children in 300 classrooms, and 3,000 books will be given away. The event is part of the national Jumpstart’s “Read for the Record” Campaign, an annual one-day celebration that brings adults and children together to read.

“The goal of the program,” said Hampton Mayor Molly Ward, “is to create a value for reading and a love of books, which will help children succeed in school and life.”

“Reading to our children is one of the most important things we can do to prepare them for academic success as well as lifelong success,” said Newport News Mayor McKinley Price. “I am excited to be joining with Mayor Ward to expand the Mayors Book Club to the children of Newport News.”

The Mayors Book Club program has two components: Volunteers read a book each month to students in preschool, kindergarten and first grades. They demonstrate that reading is fun and important and serve as role models.

Preschool students are then given a copy of that month’s book to keep. That’s a key component, because studies have shown that book ownership is directly related to reading level. By the end of the preschool year, each child will have a personal home library of at least nine books.

Promoting childhood literacy may sound expensive, but it’s cheaper than the alternatives, said Ward. “The better prepared you are for kindergarten, the better prepared you are to learn to read, and the better you will do in elementary school. Success in life is linked to success in school.”

Why is early literacy so important? Debbie Russell, administrator of Hampton’s Youth, Education and Family Services Office and coordinator of the regional Mayors Book Club, explained: “Up to third grade, children are learning to read. After that, they are reading to learn. If they can’t read, they can’t learn.

“Many states, including Virginia, use the third-grade failure rate to predict the number of prison beds they will need to build in 10 years,” Russell said. It makes economic sense to invest in early-childhood literacy, she said.

The Hampton Mayors Book Club began in 2008. During first three school years, volunteers have read a book a month to 4,000 children. More than 50,230 books have been distributed to children and classrooms, with 44,000 of those books given to preschoolers to take home.

The 3,000 copies of “Llama Llama Red Pajama” that will be distributed to preschoolers Oct. 6 were donated by the Kiwanis Clubs of Hampton and Newport News and Hampton Healthy Families Partnership Inc.
Sponsors for other books to be distributed this year include Old Point National Bank, Newport News Friends of the Library, Newport News and Hampton schools, 21st Century Learning Programs, Penguin Books, Scholastic Books, First Books of Hampton Roads, First Book-National Book Bank , Build-A-Bear, First Baptist Church of Hampton, Young Professional Kiwanis Club, Langley Civic Leaders Association, Langley Chapter of the U.S. Air Force Association, Wythe Exchange Club, among others.

To donate, send your tax-deductible contribution to Healthy Families Partnership Inc. at 100 Old Hampton Lane, Hampton Virginia 23669, Attention Debbie Russell. For more information, call 757-727-2700 or go to www.hamptonmayorsbookclub.org.

To volunteer to read to children in either city, call Marcy Messick at 757-727-2710.
 

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