GRAND RAPIDS, MICH — According to the 2019 study by the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress), twenty-five million children in the U.S. cannot read proficiently. That is why we are so excited to champion the "Give a Child a Book Campaign", where our 2023 efforts helped to raise $45,096 - thanks to the community, our station, and a generous $15,000 gift from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. These funds help us provide 430 students at three different GRPS elementary schools the option to take home 8 books each.
"It's very exciting because they don't always have a choice on what they want to read sometimes during the school day," Cesar Chavez Elementary School Principal Aimee Garcia told us. "So they get to choose eight books, any eight books that they want, that they get to take home and add to their home libraries.
"I think I'm gonna grab some informational books," student Alexis A. said. "I'm gonna try to get some of those 'I survived' because I really want to finish my collection."
Reading is hard. It's a struggle, especially for some of our native language kids who are transitioning from Spanish to English," said Garcia. "So by grade three, you want kids really solid in their reading, if you know, research says by grade three, if they're not really solid in their reading, they're going to continue to struggle with reading and you know, after third grade, you're reading to learn versus learning to read. So these book fairs offer them a choice to choose books and find a love of reading. They get to explore different genres and find that type of book that's for them, and hopefully grow that passion for reading and understanding that, yes, you read to learn, but reading is fun. It can be an escape, you can learn about different places out learn all kinds of stuff."
Join us in giving kids in West Michigan the best start, head to the Give a Child a Book section of our website.
