By Lynn Lewis Kessler
The Hollowell Foundation, a Greenbrier County-based philanthropy, recently awarded a $3,000 grant to Read Aloud West Virginia. The grant provides partial funding to initiate a program designed to reduce summer reading loss.
Read Aloud, a partner in Greenbrier County Schools’ Campaign for Grade Level Reading, plans to offer a program that allows students at Crichton Elementary to self-select paperback books to read throughout the summer. The program is based on a study conducted by Richard Allington and Anne McGill-Franzen. The three-year study provided self-selected, high-interest material for students to read during the summer months and found those students engaged more often in voluntary summer reading and had significantly higher reading achievement than a control group.
The Campaign for Grade Level Reading is a collaborative effort by foundations, non-profit partners, states and communities across the nation to ensure that more children in low-income families succeed in school and graduate prepared for college, a career and active citizenship, according to Nancy Hanna, Director of Early Childhood Education for Greenbrier County Schools.
“Greenbrier County Schools is thrilled to have Read Aloud West Virginia as one of its partners,” said Hanna. “Engaged communities mobilized to remove barriers, expand opportunities, and assist parents in fulfilling their roles and responsibilities to serve as full partners in the success of their children are needed to assure student success.”
The Hollowell Foundation honors the philanthropic efforts of Otto and Margaret Ford Hollowell by supporting projects that sustain and advance educational, scientific, literary, recreational and cultural endeavors throughout the Greenbrier Valley.
“The Hollowell Foundation is very pleased to support Read Aloud West Virginia,” said the Foundation’s Executive Director Sherry Ferrell. “Their educational programming is very important to the students in our area and helps us achieve our mission of enhancing the quality of life in Greenbrier County.”
Read Aloud will work throughout the school year to secure additional local funding, which will enable the program to be offered to all grades at Crichton beginning in May 2016.