Become a Celebrity Reader! If you are interested in becoming a Celebrity Reader, Fill out my form!
Celebrity Read is a “local legacy” initiative that recruits volunteers to model their love of reading and the pursuit of education as a pathway to success in local elementary classrooms.
United Way believes that everyone can be a “celebrity” in the life of a child and we encourage those who want to be positively engaged with our communities’ youth to become Celebrity Readers. Readers visit a school site for a morning or afternoon, read aloud with students and answer questions about their profession while encouraging youth to read and get an education. Celebrity Read proudly recruits over 400 volunteers and works with nearly 10,000 students, annually.
Created in 1990, Celebrity Read was designated a “Local Legacy” in 2001 by the Library of Congress in recognition of the program’s unique service to the community.
Students reading at and above grade level in 3rd grade graduate from high school at higher rates than students below grade level.
-Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago
One of the benchmarks in United Way’s 10-year goal to decrease dropouts by 50% and increase graduation rates by 87% is to ensure that youth in our community are reading proficiently by the 4th grade.
After two decades of successfully engaging the community in reading to youth in schools, Celebrity Read is evolving to also seek volunteers for longer-term opportunities as literacy coaches for year-round engagement with struggling readers. These coaches will be placed with existing literacy initiatives in district or charter schools. Where there is a significant need for a program, but no initiative, United Way will work with schools to develop literacy coaching programs.
CELEBRITY READ IMPACT
2012 Fast Facts:
- Over 200 Volunteer Celebrity Readers
- Approximately 8,800 elementary school students participated
- Over $5000 worth of books donated
- Over 120 guests attended the Celebrity Read Kick-Off Breakfast
We hope that your experience reading to youth on a one-time basis will be something that you’ll look forward to doing on a weekly basis. Research shows that children who are read to for 30 minutes a week for a school year evidence significant gains in their reading scores and in other subjects. Volunteer just Fill out my form!
Celebrity Read Photo Galleries
