The Alexandria Aces baseball team joined forces with Leigh Hoyer, director of the Campagna Centers Wright to Read program, to kick off this summers reading extravaganza at James Polk Elementary School on June 3.
Approximately 75 children and their mentors joined the Aces for the festivities.
Also partnering with the Giving Circle of Alexandria, the Campagna Center teamed up to create 1,100 Summer Reading Packs for students entering grades K-6 who are in Campagna Center programs. This is the third year of the collaborative project, which is both fun for volunteers and beneficial for students.
Hooray for Books, a local childrens bookstore on King Street, was a partner in the project, donating dictionaries for all students going into sixth grade and offering discounts to shoppers purchasing books for the project. There were five Book Backer sponsors this year, including the Junior League of Washington, Holly Sloan, SAS Global Forum, Friends of the Meeting House Cooperative Preschool and the Alexandria Aces baseball team. Each sponsor provided 150 copies of one book for each grade level.
Many volunteers, including several middle school students from Burgundy Farm Country Day School, collected new and like-new books for the project and placed three books in each Summer Reading Pack. The packs were then distributed to students in Campagna Center programs such as Head Start, Campagna Kids and Wright to Read.
I love everything about this project. The volunteers and sponsors do a meaningful thing in promoting summer reading, said Hoyer.
The project will continue on Tuesday, June 9, when families living in the James Bland Housing area are invited to attend the Fun Family Reading Night. The event will take place at the Family Resource Learning Center, 910 Montgomery St., from 6-7:30 p.m. Children and families can play word games, enjoy face painting and play catch with Alexandria Aces baseball players. There will also be food provided and a fire truck on display. All students in grades K-12 will receive a Summer Reading Pack with three books inside.
The ACPS students who are participating in the summer Wright to Read program are invited to opening night of the Alexandria Aces baseball season this Friday night, June 5. For more information or to donate books or make a monetary contribution to the Wright to Read program, which has been helping Alexandrias children learn to read for over 29 years, call 703-549-0111.
