OUR STORY

Whether this is your first time to Celebration of Reading or your eighth time, we think you’d like to know how we spend the funds raised:

•Volunteer USA Foundation is the new national fiscal agent. We’ve got the same key staff, but we are now able to expand our efforts. We’ll be sure to continue what you’ve appreciated: an extraordinarily low overhead (primarily because of the great in-kind support we garner) and an ability to really help families (our parents learn at close to double the national rate!).

•Funds from Celebration will fund 12 Family Literacy Academies located around the state to serve families who agree to work hard; parents work on learning English as a second language or earning their GED, and their children are also enrolled in educational programming. Our 12 programs are: the Alliance for Deaf Families in Ft. Lauderdale; Apopka GROWS in Apopka; Barr y University in Homestead; Calhoun Public Library in Blountstown; Jump Star t in Immokalee; Learning Together in Arcadia; The FLASH in Miami; Hispanic Unity in Hollywood; Lakeland Teen in Lakeland; Lake Wales Family Literacy Coalition in Lake Wales; St John’s Presbyterian Learning Center in Tampa; and Parent Power in Palm Beach. We’re particularly proud of a grant from Just Read, Florida! to allow five of our top performers to replicate their programs and serve twice as many families this year.

•We also accept restricted gifts from corporations and individuals that will provide literacy training for families. Through a gift from the Florida Lottery, we will train hundreds of parents in Florida on how to prepare three-, four- and five-year-olds to be great readers. And we’ll go national this year with a gift from Dollar General to train the parents of elementary school children in Tennessee as well.

•Since 2002, we’ve received a special donation from Carnival Cruise Lines and a variety of in-kind sponsors (Scholastic, Hallmark, Florida Hospital Association, Mercury Printing, Mail Unlimited, Florida Literacy Coalition, The State Library and Archives of Florida and CooperDDB) to provide the I am a Reader kit to the parents of every newborn baby in Florida. These kits are in English, Spanish and Creole and provide a baby’s first library card, first book, a guide for parents on helping their child to become a great reader, and more.

So, with your generosity we reach on average about 260,000 parents in Florida every year, and give them direct ways to become more literate themselves and to help their children as well.

Jeb Bush’s vision leads us to believe we can do more. We’re committed to excellence in education, and we thank you for being a par t of this effort.