ITHACA, N.Y. –– As the coronavirus pandemic continues to keep kids out of the classroom, the national literacy organization Children’s Reading Connection (CRC) has started a new campaign aimed at bringing engaging digital learning combined with hands-on reading to students across Ithaca and Tompkins county.
CRC kicked-off their campaign, dubbed “Read. Sing. Love. Books.” Wednesday, unveiling a new banner to be displayed throughout Ithaca promoting the initiative. The “Read. Sing. Love. Books.” program hand-delivers packs of books to students that are supplemented by videos and song tracks on the organization’s website.
“Now more than ever in this time of unsettledness and uncertainty, children need beautiful books and the comfort and calm of someone who reads to them everyday,” said Brigid Hubberman, CRC president and CEO.
The new banner is now up at at Visions Federal Credit Union, 410 Elmira Rd, Ithaca and will soon be followed by others on fences and buildings, libraries and even TCAT buses. The second will appear on IHS Tennis Court Fence, followed by Lambrou Real Estate. It features titles included in their book giveaway and the faces of John Simon and Cal Walker, the read-along and sing-along leaders working to promote fun learning.
Sarah Smith, a local pre-k teacher in Ithaca said during the unveiling, that CRC’s initiative has really helped supplement her distance learning curriculum.
“4-year-olds learn by touching, seeing [and] feeling. They learn by exploring a space and its objects, and they learn when content is tangible and relevant to their lives,” Smith said. “How can we make an equitable learning experience when children have vastly different resources at home? Well, Children’s Reading Connection is how.”
CRC’s campaign is being funded through Visions Federal Credit Union, which has donated an initial $7,500 that has already been used to purchase book packages for 200 children in the ICSD pre-k program, accompanied by an additional $10,000 matching challenge which community members can donate to here.
Visions Federal Credit Union President and CEO Ty Muse presented a check at Wednesday’s unveiling, saying, “I’ve always said education is the great equalizer. No matter how poor you are, if you can get enough education you have power.”
He continued, “so to me, this is a perfect connection to what we believe in,” Muse said. “We believe in giving you financial power, we believe in giving financial power to financial literacy and literacy starts with you being able to read.”
The matching grant will be used to distribute the six-book pack to an additional 500 children in pre-k in other school district as well as the Head Start in Tompkins County.
The event ended with featured reader Cal Walker narrating the book, All Are Welcome, by Alexandra Penfold. Before he got to the reading he added, “Education is liberation,” quoting American abolitionist and social reformer Frederick Douglass. “I’ve been in this community for 44 years and this (…) is part of what keeps me here.”
Ithaca Voice intern James Baratta contributed to this report.