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Books for Children
Reading Fund
Sumter
County's
Pre-K program is
a
Jump Start to K (Kindergarten) for children in Sumter County.
It's
a FREE Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) program, and
space is limited so parents and legal guardians are
urged
to act quickly to complete the paperwork and get their child into the
program. Registration is open for any child living in the county that turns 4 on
or before September 1st, regardless of income. The program is offered Monday
through Friday, and follows the regular school calendar.
The goal for every child in the
program is to prepare the
child for a standard school program so they can
succeed in school and life, and to have them leave the program with a love of
reading and learning. The sad
reality is that once a child falls behind, he or she usually stays behind
forever. The money collected from groups like ours helps provide books for
classroom libraries and supplies. Books are the bridge to a child's
future, building the foundation for them to succeed in school and in life. We
could not find a better place to put our money... to make a difference in the
lives of children. They are very frugal with donations, stretching the dollars
as far as possible, asking companies for discount coupons, free shipping,
anything they can think of to spread that money further. They "squeeze that
money until it squeals."
At every Ladies Book Club meeting,
an
envelope is passed around the room. Members donate whatever they want. The
collection is completely voluntary. Each month, Eileen Roberta reports the
amount donated so far. The fund is closed at the end of the year and a new
collection starts the beginning of the new year.
Jeanne Harris-Lively, social
worker for the
Sumter County Pre-K Program, usually comes to the February meeting to accept our
donation from the previous year. Most times, she also comes with the program's
Early Childhood Specialist to give us an update on the program, how last year's
donation was spent, and plans for the upcoming year. If you'd like to make a
donation to this fund at any time during the year, mail it to:
Eileen
Roberta
514 Weston Manor Drive
The
Villages, FL 32163
Eileen will add it to the pot.
This year, Eileen was pleased
to announce that club members contributed $800 in 2021 and presented the check
to
Jeanne
Harris-Lively. Jeanne explained that she was alone this year so we'd have to do
with her list of things she wanted to share. The program has been extremely
short-handed this year because of Covid, and this is the first year that
Jeanne's ever had absolutely NO applicants to fill staff positions, so Susan
couldn't be spared. They've even got Jeanne doing double duty, coming in on
Fridays to help out. They are limited to 200 children (I believe the
program used to take 300 children); they'd need more staff to accommodate
more children.
Jeanne thanked us.
Our donation is so welcome to
the Jump Start to K program.
Our
much needed donation will go into buying books for the classroom libraries,
holiday gift books for the children so they have a book of their own at home,
baby shower gift bags with a flier espousing the importance of early reading,
and for the inevitable emergency situations. The books they buy for the
classroom libraries are pretty sturdy so they're able to stand up to handling by
4 year olds, so they'll last several years before having to be replaced.
Covid has been very stressful on everyone.
We
often think of parents being stressed, but the children feel it and are
stressed, too. Recent book purchases for the classrooms have focused on social
and emotional issues to help the children cope. Social and emotional issues are
often ignored in curriculums, but it's very important for a child to be able to
learn. They've been starting the day with those kinds of books to help the
children calm themselves.
Someone asked where their funding comes from? She said mainly funding comes from
groups like ours. School funding from the state barely covers the
salaries of staff, and the Pre-K program only got a very tiny slice of the money
given to the schools through the Covid relief fund. They've also received money
from the Sumter County Memorial Fund, but it's not consistent. They are so
grateful to groups like ours that give year after year.
They've
recently acquired books that children can write in for their
Handwriting without Tears pre-school
program to help develop eye-hand coordination and cognitive skills. (Click
on Handwriting without
Tears to learn why teaching handwriting is so important. Also,
Psychology Today identifies
five brain-based reasons for teaching writing.)
She thanked us again before she went back to work.
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