Books by the Dozen

By Jeff Cornelius, Read12

On May 30, members of Read12, a 100 percent volunteer non-profit comprised of members of Leadership Denver’s 2012 class, held the first of three annual book fairs at Hallett Fundamental Academy in North Park Hill. Every student in grades K-2, over 180 in all, was able to order 12 books to read over the summer.  The books were free to the kids, purchased using money raised from over 60 individuals and corporate donors such as UMB Bank, Greenberg Traurig, Cassidy Turley, EKS&H and others.
Read12 was inspired by studies that show one in four Colorado 3rd graders are not reading at grade level.  Their goal at Hallett Fundamental Academy is to achieve 100% grade-level literacy by 3rd grade, a key indicator of future high school graduation rates.  Read12 is supported by Colorado Reads: The Early Childhood Literacy Initiative, which is spearheaded by Lt. Governor Joe Garcia.
The Lt. Governor, along with local firefighters, read a book to each of the classes and stressed the importance of reading before they received their books.
“This is the way we need to make learning and literacy happen. Schools alone aren’t enough. The very health of Colorado depends on teaching our children to read,” said Lt. Governor Garcia.
“It was wonderful to see how engaged the children were with our guest speakers and how excited they were to receive new books they chose themselves,” said Read12’s spokesperson Tameka Montgomery. “We hope that excitement continues this summer and reading will become a regular part of their days at home.”

Future book fairs will be held in May of 2014 and 2015 to complete the initial study period.  To donate or learn more about Read12, visit www.read12.org.