by Denise Gary
Photographs courtesy Highlights for Children and Denise Gary
Highlights magazines are pouring into Kids Need to Read! We owe this thrill to everyone who participated in December’s Highlights #GivingTuesday project. Because of your enthusiastic support and the generosity of Highlights for Children, our organization is in the midst of receiving an incredible 32,820 copies of Highlights and Highlights High Five magazines to give to the many children, schools, and organizations we assist. We were stunned and beside ourselves with joy when we heard the news!
Kids Need to Read plans to use much of this wonderful gift as part of the READ Together program. Highlights magazines are literacy-rich and excellent for adult caregivers to read to children—an activity so vital to building reading proficiency levels! Caregivers respond extraordinarily well to the magazines, especially those who have warm memories of reading the magazines themselves as children. Sometimes this occurred in doctor and dentist offices, but it is universally agreed upon that these magazines made such visits very exciting!
Kids Need to Read will provide Highlights and Highlights High Five to children and organizations across the United States. The very first magazines we received were given to excited children visiting Santa Geek at Phoenix Comicon Fan Fest. In addition to being a fun event for kids, donations at Santa Geek benefited Kids Need to Read.
A portion of the most recent delivery of magazines will be provided to Mesa United Way’s Read on Mesa program, which provides summer reading packages to disadvantaged kindergarten graduates. The program helps these young students keep their reading skills sharp over the summer break in preparation for first grade. Each of the children receiving a book pack will find a beautiful Highlights High Five magazine to assist in this effort.
Other Phoenix/Mesa area schools and organizations benefiting from the Highlights for Children #GivingTuesday gift are the two campuses of Children First Academy (serving homeless and impoverished children), Brunson-Lee and Lowell Elementary Schools (serving low socio-economic areas), Homeward Bound (transitional housing), and the Title I elementary schools of Paradise Valley Unified School District.
Upcoming shipments will be given to schools and literacy programs nationwide, to children visiting Kids Need to Read at various events, and to schools participating in Kids Need to Read’s READ Together program. To find out more about READ Together or to download a guide of Family Reading Tips, please visit the READ Together web page.
We are deeply grateful to Highlights for Children and their staff members who put the #GivingTuesday campaign together, as well as everyone who supported the magazine-raiser on behalf of Kids Need to Read. The magazines are a top-quality literacy resource for children and exceedingly valuable to our organization’s programs. Thank you all for this wonderful blessing!
