Each year, the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County holds a contest between the municipalities related to the annual Read for the Record campaign.
The coalition coordinates local efforts for the campaign in which adults read the same book on the same day to young children throughout the county. This year’s book was Nigel and the Moon.
The coalition invites the municipalities to engage their leaders and staff to participate in Read for the Record, and then the coalition looks at which municipalities had the biggest impact, based on the number of their volunteer readers, the number of students they read to, and the innovative ways the municipalities raise awareness for literacy and Read for the Record.
This year, 335 Palm Beach County municipal leaders and staff representing 21 municipalities participated at more than 115 sites, reading to more than 19,000 students at elementary schools and childcare centers.
The Village of Wellington won this year’s Read for the Record contest between municipalities in the large municipality category. Other winners were the Town of Lake Park in the small municipality category and the Village of Palm Springs in the mid-size municipality category.
Each of the winning municipalities will receive a basket of children’s books, and, of course, bragging rights.
For this year’s Read for the Record local campaign, the coalition provided more than 1,100 copies of Nigel and the Moon to childcare centers, community volunteers, municipal leaders and staff, and library media specialists throughout the county. All told, more than 26,000 students at 143 elementary schools and children’s centers in Palm Beach County were read to as part of Read for the Record.
