GRAND RAPIDS — Our third school is receiving books today as part of our "If You Give a Child a Book" campaign. Every student at Cesar E. Chavez Elementary will take home five brand new books today from the Scholastic book fair.
Cesar E. Chavez is a Grand Rapids public elementary school, and with your help, FOX 17 and our parent company E.W. Scripps raised more than $37,000 to supply these books.
Low achievement in reading is a common denominator for disciplinary problems, attendance, and juvenile crimes. That is just one reason we want to get more books into the hands of students.
Just $5 meant one book for a local student, and that book goes a long way. It is estimated that a "choice text" meaning, a book a child chooses to read, equates to about 180 minutes of active reading per child.
We visited East Leonard Elementary first, Kent Hills Elementary next, and now Cesar E. Chavez Elementary, in total more than 7,500 books were given out for free at all three schools.
Many reading programs target toddlers and preschoolers to begin reading skills, this program is different, aimed at Kindergarten through 3rd grade. If students are proficient readers in 3rd grade, they are much more likely to continue in school, and excel.
"Something really crucial happens in that third-grade year for students. Up until that point, they are learning how to read, and then it all kind of clicks for them in the third grade and they start reading to learn. If you think about that you know, think back to your science or math classes, there are a lot of word problems. You have to be able to understand and process and comprehend. If you're still struggling to be reading at that point, unfortunately at the 3rd-grade level, you're going to be falling behind," said Meredith Delaney, director of philanthropic strategies, Scripps Howard Foundation.
In total, E.W. Scripps and the Scripps Howard Fund raised more than $1 million across the country for this campaign, giving more than 221,000 to students all across the country.
Thank YOU for helping us give children brand new books and instill a lifelong love of reading! It's not too late to donate.Click here to Give A Book.
