“Local Legacy” Program - Reading to Children for 22 years!
Newark, NJ (January 31, 2012) – United Way of Essex and West Hudson announced the Kickoff of Celebrity Read 2012, a 22 year tradition of providing volunteer Celebrity Readers to local community schools. This year, volunteers will read to children in East Orange, Harrison, Irvington, Newark, Nutley, Orange, South Orange and Maplewood.
Created in 1990, Celebrity Read is a ”local legacy” initiative that recruits volunteers from throughout New Jersey 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.
Additional volunteers are still needed.
The schedule for this year’s program is as follows:
Feb 3 Madison Avenue, Irvington
Feb 8 Chancellor Avenue, Irvington
Feb 8 Lincoln School, Nutley
Feb 8 Lincoln Avenue, Orange
Feb 9 Dayton St., Newark
Feb 9 MLK Jr., Newark
Feb 10 Benjamin Banneker, East Orange
Feb 10 University Elementary, Irvington
Feb 14 Flagg Elementary, Newark
Feb 15 Johnnie Cochran, East Orange
Feb 16 BRICK Avon, Newark
Feb 16 Park Avenue, Orange
Feb 17 Mount Vernon Avenue, Irvington
Feb 17 Clinton School, Maplewood/ South Orange
Feb 17 Harriet Tubman, Newark
Feb 23 Camden St., Newark
Feb 24 Branch Brook, Newark
Feb 27 Luis Monoz Marin (Broadway), Newark
Feb 28 Lincoln School, Harrison
Feb 29 Dionne Warwick, East Orange
Feb 29 Rosa Parks Central, Orange
To sign up to volunteer go to www.uwewh.org/news-and-events/
For more information about the Celebrity Read Program, please contact George Xuereb by phone at 973-854-2215 or email gxuerub@uwewh.org.
About The United Way of Essex and West Hudson
Founded in 1923, the United Way of Essex and West Hudson is a non-profit organization that seeks to address the root causes of community concerns by aligning resources to best meet the needs of individuals, children and families through its service area annually. We serve a population of nearly 700,000 in thirteen communities in Essex and Hudson County. For more information about or how to get involved, visit our websitewww.unitedwayessex.org
Media Contact
George Xuereb
Phone: 973-854-2215
