According to story that ran at education-portal.com in September 2007, there are at least two million adults every year that are considered to be functionally illiterate. Forty-two million of those can’t read at all, and 50 million are considered to be unable to read at a higher level than is expected of a fourth or fifth grader. These statistics are staggering but Vivian and Anthony Ashcraft, and countless volunteers are doing their part to change those statistics here in Arkansas.
The couple organized and hosted the first annual Black Stallion Literacy Foundation “Ride for Literacy” fundraiser the first weekend in May, and because of their efforts Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe declared April as Black Stallion Literacy Month. The event was held on the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s land at Camp Robinson in Little Rock.
Vivian works as an accountant with the Pine Bluff Chemical Disposal Facility, and Anthony works in the motor pool for Pine Bluff Arsenal’s Directorate of Logistics. Deborah Moncrief, DOL chief, and Cynthia Hahn, who works in DOL’s Property Book Office, also participated in the event.
“On Friday morning, we had 425 first graders do what is called a second touch program where they come and read to the horses,” said Vivian. “They learn how to take care of them, to comb and brush them. Each child goes in individually with the horses and reads to them.’
Vivian said that she had never heard of such a thing until they got involved with it. “We got involved in it because my horse thinks he can read,” she said. “This lady at a horse show got us involved and we had been going around trying to get some of the Pine Bluff schools involved. We couldn’t get any corporate sponsorship.”
She said that Anthony got the idea that they could do something similar to what Wal-Mart does. “We will do little amounts and ask for a lot of people to help,” she said. “Our goal was 20 people and $750. We posted it on Facebook the first weekend in October, went on vacation and on the third day I opened it up and went oh my! The response was overwhelming. We made roughly over $10,000 and we still have money coming in and are now at about $11,000.”
The Ashcraft’s said they plan to continue this effort in the future.
BSLF is a ground-breaking partnership of volunteers, educators, businesses, and education foundations which focuses on the advancement of literacy by the successful combination of live horses and Walter Farley books. Farley’s classics, according to a release, are used to advance the natural connection between children and horses. The project, conceived in 1999 by Farley’s son, has been serving children since 2000. Since then, more than 400,000 children across the United States have participated in BSLF reading programs.
The program provides first graders two of Walter Farley’s books and after completion, the children are taken on a field trip in which they get to see horses, learn how to take care of them and then are allowed to read to them.
Growing up with horses, Vivian said that she was really fascinated by the program. “Anthony’s horse is super nervous, so during the event they had me pull my horse out because his horse wasn’t into all the hands touching him,” she said. “So my goal was to drop my horse off and pick up Anthony’s horse, however, when I got back to the stable there was this little girl with a volunteer trying to work with Anthony’s horse and another horse.”
She said that Anthony’s horse had his head down and was mashed up in the corner letting the child read to him. “I started to relieve the volunteer and the little girl looked wild eyed at me and told me she didn’t read very well. She was stuttering really badly,” said Vivian.
“I told her that was ok and that the horse really wanted to hear the rest of the story. She started to read again, stuttered on her first words, and then looked at me. His horse lowered his head even more and stuck his nose up and touched her hand and softly nickered. The child kept on reading and never stuttered again. She was so focused it was amazing!”
All the money collected at the fundraiser will go to purchase books for children in Arkansas. “Arkansas is number two in the nation for illiteracy. This money is specifically earmarked for Arkansas,” said Vivian. “It was quite amazing to see how all the horses would compete against each other when the children were reading to them.”
Social Sharing