Once again, the Village of Wellington won the annual Read for the Record competition in the large municipality category, held as part of the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County’s local Read for the Record Day.
With support from PNC Grow Up Great, PNC’s nearly 20-year bilingual early childhood education initiative, the Literacy Coalition provided 1,100 copies of this year’s Read for the Record book, With Lots of Love by Jenny Torres Sanchez, to hundreds of childcare centers, elementary school libraries, municipal leaders and community volunteers to read to students and children throughout the county on Oct. 26. With Lots of Love is a story about family, finding ways to stay connected, and sharing love across distances.
This is the 18th year that the Literacy Coalition has hosted and coordinated Read for the Record Day locally. The initiative is part of Jumpstart’s national Read for the Record campaign. The mission is to raise awareness around the importance of early literacy and access to inclusive literature that fosters belonging and connection by reflecting children’s own experiences and showing the experiences of others.
With copies of the book provided by the coalition: 475 leaders and staff members from 23 municipalities read to 21,147 children at 144 childcare centers and elementary schools. The municipalities competed to see who could read the book to more children.
The Read for the Record Large Municipality Winner was Wellington, while the Read for the Record Mid-Size Municipality Winner was the Village of Palm Springs and the Read for the Record Small Municipality Winner was the Town of Lantana.
An additional 171 community volunteers read the book to 5,549 children at 32 childcare centers and elementary schools.
All told, 646 municipal and community volunteers read to 26,966 students at 176 elementary schools and childcare centers throughout Palm Beach County.
Additionally, 35 children from the Atkins Childcare Center in Riviera Beach and the Literacy Coalition’s Glades Family Education Program attended a Read for the Record special event at the coalition’s Blume Center for Education in Boynton Beach.
“PNC is proud to join the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County in bringing this event to our community and highlighting the critical importance of early literacy,” said Cressman Bronson, PNC regional president for Southeast Florida. “Research shows that children who enter the K-12 system ready to learn are more likely to succeed in school and life. Reading is the key to that success and creates a foundation for learning that lasts a lifetime.”
For more information about the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County and the literacy programs it provides, visit www.literacypbc.org or call (561) 279-9103.
