Day Care Literacy Project

The Day Care Literacy Project was started in 2004 with monies donated by Penny and Henry Fuerzeig, who are committed to the concept that most of what children learn is learned before they are four years old. They are supporting programs that make that period of a child's development as rich and stimulating as possible. Volunteers take packets of books to a day care center and read at least two books to the children, emphasizing child participation, verbalization and dramatic reading. The first goal, of course, is to engage the children and make books interesting and exciting. The secondary goal is to model for the teachers so they too can involve the children with books.

The volunteer leaves the packet of five books with the teacher to read during the following week. Then they return with a new packet and exchange and read again. This enables centers whose funds are very limited to expose the children to over 200 different books each year.

The program was originally conceived by Ms. Bernier, the Head Start teacher at Child's Place Too when we were distributing leaflets promoting the FOSTPL's Summer Reading Program (SRP) at the Enid M. Baa Public Library. She suggested that we come and read to the children at the center and when we did we found the supply of books very limited so we went seeking funding to supply our own books.

Felicia Leipzig, who has expertise in early childhood, purchased over two hundred very special children's books. She packaged them in bright colored plastic folders in sets of five and we went looking for centers that would like to have volunteer readers every week.

That was not hard to find - within minutes we had seven and recently we have added two more. Three volunteers are presently reading to over 200 children. But that's only a drop in the bucket. There are 99 day care centers and head start programs on St. Thomas alone. Some of them have as few as six children, some have as many as 150. Sooooo... we could use a lot of volunteers because this program is immeasurably valuable.

The children get so excited to see the volunteer (a new face) and are sweet, cooperative and very loving. We want them to get involved and sometimes that 'involvement' is a bit too loud to read over but they get quiet really quickly if you say you have to stop reading.

Over the past few years we have read to Child's Place Too, Child's Place, Busy Bees, Handy Spandy, Developmental, Little People's Learning Center, Mafalie Day Care and recently we added the two head start programs at Knud Hansen.

A new volunteer who made the tour was so overwhelmed at the neat and cleanly atmosphere in the centers, the graciousness of the staffs, and the beauty of all those happy faces, that she burst into tears after an hour. She said that reading to these kids is almost as good as reading to her own grandkids and a positive substitute with her children far away.

We all laugh at the cheer that goes up when we get out of the car, the exuberant 'good mornings' and the wonderful hugs that come as we leave. What could be better, and they think we're doing something for them, uhmmm...

The present volunteers are: Ruby Todman and her husband, Gwen Blyden, Diane Windisch and Carol Lotz-Felix. We are presently reading to 14 different day care groups. We have 43 sets of five books that we read and lend on a weekly basis. The children we read to range from 2-4 years of age. We could use more volunteers - it is such a pleasure and so beneficial to the children. This is a program that deserves a lot of support. Call Carol Felix for more information at 715-7964.