Literacy partnership promotes reading at School Age Centers

By Karl Weisel (Wiesbaden Family and MWR)August 1, 2016

Literacy partnership promotes reading at School Age Centers
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

WIESBADEN, Germany - "I love reading. Every time I can go to the library I just rush down there," said Emma Dean, a 9-year-old at the Hainerberg School Age Center.

Thanks to a $20,000 Installation Management Command literacy grant, more of Dean's Child, Youth and School Services program peers will be encouraged to develop a lifelong love of reading.

"This was a literacy partnership initiative with IMCOM and we submitted a proposal on how we could increase leisure reading at the center while encouraging children to take it home with them," said Hainerberg SAC Director Katherine Vahrenkamp.

"I think reading as a whole has decreased among children -- they're playing more video games and such rather than reading.

"This literacy grant will be used to buy books (both hard copy and e-books) and the software program (Reading Plus) to help participants keep track of their reading," Vahrenkamp explained. "In the fall Reading Plus will send someone out to train our staff on how to use the program."

Books are being selected from a recommended Department of Education reading list, she added.

"Because it's Internet-based, we have iPads coming as well. That way the children can find a nice quiet spot at the center and continue reading," Vahrenkamp said. "And maybe on nice days they can go outside to read."

The center director said she is inspired to help youths develop a "joy of reading" as a lifelong reader herself.

"I loved reading when I was a child. Lots of times I'd finish books from the library before I got home and my parents would just leave them in the car to take them back," she said, adding that the Clay School Age Center was also the recipient of a literacy grant in the sum of $10,000.

"We had to write justifications (explain how we would use the grant money) and IMCOM informed us that we were successful," Vahrenkamp said.

"I know funding is getting tighter every year," she said, "and we really appreciate the fact that IMCOM sees this as an important funding issue. It's wonderful of them to support literacy and our children."

Fellow 9-year-old Gabby Couts who "usually reads graphic novels and the Goosebumps books," said she, too, is looking forward to having more reading material at the Hainerberg School Age Center.

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