Written by Denise Gary
There is no more beautiful creation than a child. They are born with loving, giving hearts, ready to have their minds nurtured to greatness. It is the responsibility of our society to provide a constant culture of kindness, respect, compassion, and peace for every child, and to provide them with responsible leadership at all times. All adults carry the burden to be mentors of the highest order to all children. When some adults fail, others must stand up to fill in for that which they lack. There are no acceptable excuses for us as a society not to take care of our children. It is imperative to the future of our country, not to mention to the future of all of humanity, that we demonstrate to every single child that goodness and education will carry them farthest in life. Consider this disturbing statistic: the United Nations bestowed the United States with a literacy ranking of only 49 out of 156 UN countries. We are failing our children and debasing our entire society in the process!
Providing fine literature, music, and cultural experiences are some of the best methods of nurturing our children’s hearts and minds, especially in situations where nurturing is severely lacking. The greatest literature provides “life inspiration” when it cannot be found elsewhere. In the hands of an inquisitive child, a book becomes a powerful weapon for change. We cannot deny our most disadvantaged children access to the finest literature our society has produced. If they are not taught to read, inspired to read, and provided with magnificent books, they will be stunted for the remainder of their life. The more children we produce who have not been nurtured by literacy, the more our society will suffer and degrade.
If you do not see a lack of “literacy nurturing” where you live, understand that it is happening to at least a quarter of the children living in this country. Twenty-five percent of high school students in the United States drop out of school, most often due to illiteracy. This is a terrifying statistic! These children are the forgotten ones—the children who have fallen through the cavernous cracks of our educational system. They never should have reached high school without the ability to read. This severe lack of literacy nurturing is completely avoidable. We have the know-how to teach most children to read, despite all but the gravest of mental and physical challenges. We are condemning twenty-five percent of our children to a life of mediocrity or crime because of uncompassionate decisions based on finance, rather than the care of human lives who have incredible talents to share for the betterment not only of themselves, but for the rest of our global community.
I am filled with pride over the accomplishments of Kids Need to Read this past year: we established our first permanent office; we grew to two full-time employees and one full-time volunteer employee; we created unique community events; and we instituted our own book distribution process, saving us thousands of dollars. But the achievement that fills my spirit with the most happiness is the infusion of literacy nurturing into our program. In my 2010 New Year’s message, I wrote the following:
My focus and desire is to implement new program strategies to make Kids Need to Read not only a provider of much needed reading material, but to provide uplifting, positive influences for the at-risk children we serve.
I am pleased to say that we carried through on that goal and our national literacy nurturing program sprang forth from that resolve. We have always believed it is not enough to give a cheap, throw-away book to a child and expect them to be swept away into a magical literacy cloud, so we have always endeavored to provide engaging, exceptional books and series to our beneficiaries. In addition to restructuring our book list, we now provide individualized guidance and a list of 22 inspiring, nurturing activities from which our recipients must choose and carry out at least one. We will soon be receiving feedback from the beneficiaries of our new program strategies and developing further plans to strengthen their impact. In addition, we have developed several community programs that will be implemented in 2011. These programs encourage literacy, leadership, respect for our environment, and help for children impeded by Asperger’s syndrome.
Please stand with us as we devote ourselves to nurturing literacy so that the children of this country can flourish. Make Kids Need to Read a part of your charitable giving. Be a mentor of kindness, compassion, respect, and peace to the children who look to your leadership. Stand up for those children who have been forgotten. Be a voice for literacy and education in your community. Above all, consistently provide literacy nurturing to the children in your life.
All of us at Kids Need to Read wish everyone the happiest of New Years. Thank you for supporting our efforts to make a difference in the lives of all children!
Most sincerely,
Denise Gary
Executive Director
Recent Testimonials:
Thank you for the overwhelming outreach to our children and organization. This is the greatest effort extended to our program since the idea of a library was first conceived. We are blessed to have your donation and look forward to digging in. The coming year looks exciting. – Patricia Lanchester, Dignity Housing West, Oakland, California
I am overcome with emotion and blown away by your generous response! I feel incredibly fortunate that Karen contacted me a few months ago about the prospect of receiving a grant to help our students. I had no idea it would multiply into such a unique opportunity to touch so many children’s lives. Nearly every day a child tells me they need a new book from the media center because there are none at home for them to read. This is hard for me to comprehend as I was fortunate to have a library of my own rich with literature when I was a child. My goal is to make that a reality for the students here at Loughman Oaks. Thank you for sharing in this vision and believing that it can happen. Your kindness will put smiles on the faces of hundreds of students now! – Amanda Bell, Loughman Oaks Elementary School, Davenport, Florida
