Alvernia READS passes its 1st semester with flying colors

During Alvernia READS' 1st semester, the program has reached out to over 200 children in the Reading area, giving away over 350 books at 9 different events. Nearly 50 members of the Alvernia community, faculty, staff and students alike, have dedicated their time to the success of this program and for all of this I am eternally grateful.

What's more, is the booming accomplishment of the Sigma Tau Delta book drive! In just over a month 455 books were collected from various places on campus. Again, I cannot thank those who organized the drive and those who contributed to it enough.

Group shot during our final fall program

As the semester winds down, we've made our last fall visit to Tyson-Schoener and we opened up a reading room to the community at the Goggleworks 2nd Sunday. We had a great big room to house games and crafts for families looking for weekend fun.

  







 

Moving Forward

I can't believe it has been a month since our last update! Time is flying by, but many wonderful things have been happening.

We have completed two visits to our friends at Tyson-Schoener Elementary. The students from Alvernia are amazing with the kids, and have really been enjoying themselves. Alphabet fishing was once again a hit, and we also worked with compound words during our second visit. Although the children hadn't studied compound words in school before, they grasped the concept immediately. It was very impressive! Channel 69 News did a short segment on Alvernia READS' partnership with Tyson-Schoener which aired yesterday. Be sure to check it out, here!

We also have quite a few book drives going on. The Governor Mifflin High School's Key Club collected about 200 books for us in just two weeks, the Literacy Council of Reading-Berks emptied one box of 80 books to us and is still going strong, Sigma Tau Delta, the english honor society at Alvernia, has placed drop boxes in the Student Center, Bernardine Hall, Library, Gym and Upland. After just a short 2 weeks, over 180 books had been collected. Thanks for all the generous donations, Alvernia and keep up the great work!

We have 3 more events before the end of our Fall semester, occurring on--

November 30th, 4:30-5:30 at Opportuntity House
December 8th, 11-12:30 at Tyson-Schoener
December 11th, 11-2 at Goggleworks 2nd Sunday Open House

We're excited to be hosting a Reading Room at the Goggleworks 2nd Sunday in December, as this will be a time for families to come and go with their children, do some crafts, sit down together with a book and of course, take one home before departing.

Until next time!

First event at SRYI

Alvernia READS had the pleasure of hosting its first literacy event at the South Reading Youth Initiative (SRYI), an after-school program run by the Holleran Center at Alvernia. Sheriff Weaknecht was present for this event, and visited with each of the children to discuss safety awareness as well as the importance of reading.

Picture courtesy of the Reading Eagle




Nine students volunteered to read with 27 children at SRYI, and we were pleasantly surprised to find that many of the children were excited to read to us!

Before ending the event by distributing a book for each child to take home with them, we went "alphabet fishing". The kids had a great time fishing in a pool of 200 colorful paper fish, each containing a letter on the back which they then used to spell as many words as possible.

The next Alvernia READS event is scheduled for Thursday, October 27th at Tyson-Schoener school. We're looking forward to working with the energentic 1st grade!

Upcoming events in October

Alvernia READS will be hosting its first reading with South Reading Youth Initiative at Saint Peter's Church in Reading on October 19th. Sheriff Weaknecht will be present to interact with the kids and give them freebies from the Sheriff's Department. Additionally, we have 20 wonderful student volunteers from Alvernia who will be devoting their time to reading with the kids and giving them free books at the end of their visit. Stay posted for pictures!

Next, we'll be visiting a 1st grade classroom at Tyson-Schoener. This will the first of many visits to this 1st grade classroom, as we'll be working with them on a monthly basis this entire year. We're very excited to get to know all these young students by reading with them, completeing fun literacy activities and of course, giving them books to add to their home libraries.

Remember--if you'd like to get involved just email allison.kren@alvernia.edu or stop by the Holleran Center to talk to Ali.

What is Alvernia READS?

Alvernia READS is a new program at Alvernia run through the Holleran Center for Community Engagement. This program is dedicated to promoting childhood literacy and improving academic acheivement among the youth of Reading. Our aim, with the help of the Greater Reading Cops N Kids program, is to get more books into the hands of underprivileged children and provide them with an increased sense of confidence when dealing with their schoolwork.

We need the help of the Alvernia students to make this happen!

Once the logistics of the program are set in place I will provide an update with solid details about how to get involved and what the commitment entails.