John Monfredo: “Kids Who Read Succeed”… Join Our Team

Saturday, October 11, 2014

John Monfredo, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

“Smile and all of Worcester will SMILE with you.” World Smile Day not only brought big smiles to the community on October 3rd but also brought the importance of literacy in this community. Worcester: the City that Reads kick-off initiated by the Worcester Educational Collaborative held an awareness day with lots and lots of community partners being part of the process. The message was loud and clear that literacy is the single most important skill for success in school and life.

This was truly a collaborative event with the Worcester Telegram and Gazette providing great coverage throughout the week leading up to the kickoff. Other coverage was provided by Jordan Levy and Hank Stolz on their radio shows. The WRTA also took part by displaying on their buses, “Kids who READ succeed!” The same can be said about the message at Foley and digital signs at the Digital Credit Union.

The Worcester Public Schools not only had an important reading message to share with its students but partnered with the core group of individuals to share the reading message of 20 minutes, every child, and every day.

Thanks you, Hanover Insurance, for providing the funding for the signs throughout the community and in the schools. In addition, the marketing department at Hanover gave the committee the use of Alexandra Montgomery, part of the marketing team, to spearhead the drive and she delivered big time! Hanover also provided giveaways including 5000 bookmarks, 100 stickers, 250 pins, 7 pledge posters, 250 BINGO Cards and 250 Calendars.

Edwards Street Child Service was also a key player in this amazing awareness day with their contacts to all of the pre-school organizations and the public relations expertise. Other organizations included in the day … Hanover Theater, Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, Nativity School of Worcester, NSTAR, PENTA Communications, Quinsigamond Community College, RSVP with their storyboards at City Hall, St. Vincent’s Hospital , UMASS Medical, WCCA TV, Worcester Family Partnership, Worcester Sharks, Working for Worcester, Apple a Day organization, Becker College, Big Brother, Big Sister organization, WPI students who volunteered at the Hanover Theater, Boys and Girls Club, City Hall for providing the space, Commerce Bank, Girls, Inc. Guild of St. Agnes, Flexcon, YWCA, YMCA, Reach Out and Read. World Smile Day- Charlie Ball and Bill Wallace from the Worcester Historic Museum. Hats off to our City Manager Ed Augustus for his support and for his original poem on literacy read at City Hall. As I stated before my reading of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie that our City Manager is Dr. Seuss of Worcester.

Needless to say the core team led by Dr. Jennifer Davis Carey of the Worcester Educational Collaborative and her able assistant Margaret Leroux, Patty Eppinger incoming chair woman of the WEC, Alexandra Montgomery,Dr. Erin Dobson, Dianne Bruce, Pamela Kane, Kim Davenport, Shirley Taylor, Megan Bourget, Dr. Marco Rodrigues, Charles Gruszka, Chantell McDowell, William Wallace, Dante Comparetto, Sara Belisea, Pamela Boisert, and I ( John Monfredo) worked diligently throughout the summer months to make October 3rd a successful event in Worcester.

Moving forward, the core team met this week and is in the process of working on the next step in the campaign. Improving children’s reading outcomes will demand hard work for the raising awareness of this issue is all part of the over-all plan, but changing behavior is next and it is not going to be easy. A sustained, intensive approach is needed for work that supports children, caregivers, parents, and educators. All must be all part of the equation. We must include parent education workshops, home visits, adult education, early education, after school and summer programs for children.

Remember the overall goal is Reading on Grade Level by the end of grade three. Again, as mentioned many times in the campaign … this is the moment a child transitions from learning to read, to reading to learn. Getting all children on that pathway starts at birth. If we can give each and every child access to an early education and get our parents to read to their children early in life we will be able to build the necessary readiness skills for future academic endeavors. All partners involved need to focus on educating parents on the importance of how reading, talking and singing to children are critical to language and literacy development. There is no substitute for the parent’s or caregiver’s role as a child’s first teacher and most concerned advocate.

Achieving this goal will require everyone in this community to play a role. Yes, IT’S ALL HANDS ON DECK… In the words of one of my favorite authors… Tomie dePaola… “Reading is important, because if you can read, you can learn anything about everything and everything about anything.”