More than 15,000 second graders, almost 600 business volunteer readers, seven chambers of commerce, two reading councils and two corporate sponsors participated in the eleventh annual Community Reading Day this past April.
The nationally recognized program was initiated in 1997 by Skills in Scranton, the business-education partnership of The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce. More than 15,000-second grade students in almost 600 classrooms participated, with 600 volunteer readers from the business community. Since its inception, Community Reading Day has touched the lives of more than 140,000 second grade students. Nearly 5,000 volunteers have read to these students in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wayne, and Wyoming counties.
Joining Skills in Scranton as sponsor were the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry, the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Pittston Chamber of Commerce, the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce, the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce, and the South Valley Chamber of Commerce. Also co-sponsoring the event was the Northeastern Pennsylvania Reading Association.
The corporate sponsor for Community Reading Day is Bank of America. Bank of America joined with Skills in Scranton in sponsoring the inaugural event and has continued to serve as corporate sponsor. They have donated nearly 3,000 books during the past ten years. Bank of America will be honored at a volunteer appreciation breakfast for serving as the corporate sponsor of Community Reading Day since the inception of the event.
As part of this event to promote literacy, business volunteers visited second grade classrooms to read a book to the students, discuss the book, discuss his or her job and employer and donate the book to the class. The event is designed to encourage students to read. It also provides an opportunity for business volunteers to see what is happening in the classroom first-hand. At the same time, students and teachers have the opportunity to interact with a representative of the business community. Through sharing time and stories, business volunteers, students and teachers are able to interact together while learning about the importance of literacy.
Chamber Staff Contact:
Jeffrey A. Rubel
jrubel@scrantonchamber.com
|  |
|
|
