2005 Youth Leaders for Literacy
Grant Winners Announced

Grab your passports and hold on to your “Reading Hats” . . . Next stop, Whoville!  Carly Hockenberry, a student at Glendale High School in Flinton, Penn., is among the 2005 Youth Leaders for Literacy Grant winners for her creative after school event “Passport to Whoville,” which took students on a reading trip through the imagination.

Joining Carly in this year’s diverse group of winners is Matthew Her Many Horses of the Rosebud Indian Reservation in Mission, S.D., who stood at school bus stops dressed as the Cat in the Hat to encourage students to read.

NEA and Youth Service America (YSA) developed the Youth Leaders for Literacy program to encourage and celebrate literacy service of our nation's young people and honor them for doing reading-related activities that benefit others.

We were delighted to receive over 200 grant applications from groups and individuals making reading a priority in their lives and directing energy, enthusiasm, and wisdom into service to their communities. Below is the final selection of this year’s grant winners. Congratulations to all who participated, NEA’s Read Across America team will be contacting you with a list of additional resource organizations for your project.

Here's a sampling of this year's highlights:

In West Plains, MO, Desiree Phillips , a volunteer at the Christos House shelter for battered women, will be coordinating a literacy program that will not only help the children of the shelter but also the women, who themselves have struggled with literacy. The project would guide women and children into literacy with library visits, book recordings, bookstore visits, and readings.

In Johnson, IA, Jennifer Winzenburg, a high school volunteer on Kids Radio Mania, KDPS FM88.1, has made literacy a priority by using her volunteer services at the radio station to begin a special project called “Radio Reading Reviews.” Jennifer will travel to local elementary schools and tape children giving rave reviews about their favorite books. These taped reviews will then be aired on a weekend show and will include information on how children can find the featured books at their local libraries or bookstores.

In Longview, TX the Spring Hill Leaders Core will be adding to the excitement of reading through a project called “Tales of Teddy” kicking off on March 2nd and ending on April 15th. They will be encouraging elementary students needing additional help with reading to meet with them for one hour a week. Each week will have a reading theme that will be accompanied by various activities that coincide with the weekly theme. The final theme of their project is “Teddy Get Ready” in which each student participating in the reading project will receive their own stuffed teddy bear. Each participating student will stuff, dress, and name their own new reading bear.

In Portland, OR, the Rambunctious Readers of PAL will be using their volunteer services to read to area preschool students and leave books for the preschool children to use in their reading center. They will be hosting a book drive at a local bookstore and creating bookmarks to hand out to youths receiving books from their book drive. They will also be researching various foreign languages and selecting three foreign languages to learn the basics themselves and in turn teach to other interested youths for Learn a Language Day.

In LasCruces, NM, Hillrise Elementary fifth grade students will be reaching out to their community by initiating their “Baking a Batch of Good Readers” project. Their project will combine youth’s love of sweets and stories. Beginning on March 2nd these students will take the city bus to the Christian Day Nursery once a week and will take turns reading to the children. After reading books the children will enjoy snacking on a deliciously, sweet treat that was mentioned in the featured book. The nursery will receive a copy of every book read to be included in their reading center.

In Mercersburg, PA, 16 members of the Technology Student Association (TSA) from James Buchanan High School will be encouraging students at elementary, middle school, and high school levels to join in the excitement of reading with activities tailored to their level. Elementary children will read across America through the use of a booklet, developed by TSA, containing a page for each state, including little known facts about that state, authors from the featured state. Students traveling across America through literature will receive a certificate and a prize. Middle school students will be encouraged to read books from different regions of America. TSA will select the winning homeroom and present them with a prize. TSA members and Spanish club members will repair aging books and sponsor the creation of English/Spanish children’s book. High school students will write children’s stories in their English class, pass these stories on to the Spanish Club to translate, create illustrations, produce multiple copies using a printing press and distribute these new children’s books to area elementary schools, area dentist offices, doctor offices, hair studios, auto shops and daycares. TSA will also distribute these books on International Children’s day on April 2nd.

In Hague, VA,  “Literacy Lady” Rebecca Jones from Cople Elementary will be hosting a seven week story hour and book talk beginning on March 2nd . Local businesses will be donate door prizes to accompany her selection of books and community members will join in as guest readers. Jones will also write   book review for the local paper and sponsor a book drive.

In Mission, SD, Matthew Her Many Horses will encourage fellow students from his reservation, Rosebud Indian Reservation to read books from his book cart while waiting for their school bus. He will entice students to participate by dressing as the Cat in the Hat and explaining the project to the students. He will invite guest readers to join the students and read, host a book hunt, introduce the project to parents, have book theme weeks where students create crafts reflecting the theme, and have a reading celebration for all who participate in this seven week project.

In Overland Park, KS, enrichment students from Blue Valley North High School will show their appreciation for valuable literacy skills through their project called “Mission to Read Adventure”. They will be hosting various activities, such as book creating, arts and crafts, games and plays, during their sessions at a local elementary school to bring fun to their reading sessions. They will center their activities around classic stories from Aesop’s Fables such as The Tortoise and the Hare, The Boy Who Cried Wolf and The Lion and the Mouse. They will focus on different aspects of literacy each week while assisting elementary students to develop fun literary tools that will aid them in their comprehension.

In Oneonta, NY, college students, Justine LaMantia and Teresa Tartaglione, will be jumping in on the action by traveling to neighboring schools to introduce contemporary young adult literature to students. Their goal is to spark curiosity in both teachers and students about contemporary young adult literature and involve them in a young adult literature seminar on the State University College of Oneonta campus. They will provide seminar attendees with workshops ranging from read-a-loud and young adult literature sharing sessions They will host book clubs and donate books used at the seminar to local schools to encourage awareness of contemporary young adult literature.

In Flinton, PA, Carly Hockenberry, a student at Glendale High School will be hosting a school assembly at a local elementary school to generate excitement for a reading competition. Students will be challenged to keep reading logs of their books and have an accompanying parent signature on them. Awards and prizes will be given to the top readers in K-3 and 4-6. The week of NEA’s Read Across America will be filled with school-wide activities, games, and art contest portraying student’s favorite Dr. Seuss character. He will host an after school event called “Passport to Whoville” in which students arriving  will receive a passport to be carried with them throughout the school and checked off after participating in each activity. Students presenting a complete passport will receive a book prize.

In Barker, NY, the middle school members of Junior Friends of the Barker Free Library will encourage kids to visit and use the Barker Free Library. Working together these students will turn a section of the library into a Dr. Seuss themed children’s room, filling it with life size characters and scenery. They will host seven story hours, have guest speakers, explore languages and food of various cultures, and host a celebration for all who participate in the sessions. With the help of the library they will obtain new books for the library and donate them to be apart of their permanent collection.

In Gainesville, GA, the Alpha Lambda Delta college students from Brenau University Campus will be working with at-risk adolescent girls at a local non-profit organization called Gainesville Adolescent Project (GAP).  They will be building mentor relationships with these adolescents and not only engaging them in literature but also assisting them in their ability to function within society. They have planned weekly activities to expand these young adults out look on life, such as visiting art exhibits, story telling, holding literary discussion sessions, reading plays as well as developing their own plays depictive of their life experiences.

In Ripon, Wisconsin the college members of Ripon CAN (Community Action Network) – Bilingual Literacy Leadership Committee will bridge the cultural divide between locals and Hispanic migrants. They plan on implementing both language learning and diversity programs in fun atmospheres that target students of all backgrounds. They will encourage parents to take an active role in the education process regardless of the language barriers by providing local elementary schools with full text bilingual children’s books which may then be incorporated into reading programs. They will work with other academic departments to create Accelerated Reader quizzes to accompany texts. They will also host two separate bilingual reading sessions at a local elementary school. The students will enjoy read-a-loud and storytelling sessions, and will enjoy participating in the creation of a bilingual coloring book.

In Cleveland, Ohio, Anita Isom, middle school student at St. Mary’s will be encouraging students to sign up for a library card and use the library on a regular basis. Local libraries will waive library fees to help Anita in her effort to reinstate youth library cards. Anita will be hosting a book drive, establishing a book club, hosting workshops on how to write your own story and bookmaking, a teen poetry slam and she hopes her efforts will create a new generation of authors and offer youth activities that are both positive and fun.

In Indianapolis, IN, high school members of the Indianapolis Writers’ Center VOICE will be launching an on-line journal for Indiana high-school students. They will make announcements for entries of creative writing, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for the VOICE on-line journal. They will be offering workshops at their weekly VOICE meetings to all interested in being introduced to creative writing. They will host a learning session with the guidance of local literary journal editors and librarians to present information on literary journals and how copy editing and journal selections are made. They will also initiate a visit to a professional poetry reading at a local college and host an open house reading party where the site will be officially launched.

ESL club in GamewellMiddle School will add momentum to the literary movement by assisting native tongue students to learn English by reading English books. They will visit local elementary schools and read to Spanish speaking students. They will create a documentary composed of their experiences as they themselves help one another to learn English and encourage elementary school students to be encouraged to continue in their struggle to learn English.

In New York, NY, a group of students, at the High School for Health Profession and Human Service, will be helping parents and children at the Chinese Health Center become familiar with literary resources within their community through field trips to the library, obtaining library cards, and read different types of books. They will encourage children to be more outspoken through art activities, expand their imagination through book making, think critically by comparing same subject matter of two different literary formats (book vs. video), play reenactments, teaching local children about their own cultural background through literacy and art focusing specifically on bilingual Chinese and English speakers, and encouraging children to use their problem solving and team skills by engaging them in a scavenger hunt at a local park.

In Prattville, AR, Daniel Pratt Elementary student Katie Fladung will be inviting guest speakers to read in different classes at her school in honor of NEA’s Read Across America Day. She will also be hosting a library night where parents and students come to the library and enjoy reading books together while they share pizza and drinks. Local news and media coverage will help promote the many events going on at her school, such as free book drawings from donated books, book reading contests, a school book walk, book trivia and silly sock day.

In Queens, NY, middle and high school members of the Angels of Literacy program will join in on the enthusiasm of literacy by holding peer group, read-a-loud, and story telling sessions at the Far Rockaway Branch Library. They will engage children through reading activities, arts and crafts and worksheet reviews. Their focus will be on encouraging local children to be hungry to gain knowledge about how to pick books from different genres, keep busy in a positive way and to bring positive attention to the benefits of the local library.

In San Antonio, TX, the Peer Assistant Leadership Students (PALS) Book Club has created a bilingual reading Sesussian reading project to help all pre-k through third graders in a community that lacks bookstores and a local library. The project will feature guest readers, family reading activities, and book celebrations.

In Placentia, CA, Garrett Trinkle and Leah Espinoza will be teaching the young children of HIS House homeless shelter and the Bradford Boys and Girls Club to read and love reading. The young leaders will be working closely with local community leaders as guest readers and will be coordinating reading incentive projects with the children.

In Cheyenne, WY, the Laramie County Library Youth Advisory Board will be working to create a library for the juvenile jail facility at the Jeffery C. Wardle Academy, a detention and redirection program for teens. Board members will work with therapists and jail inmates to set up the library and develop a reading program at the jail.

In Conyers, GA, the Super Stars of Baldwin County will be working with community groups like the Reading Grannies to share the joy of reading with local schoolchildren. The Super Stars will be reading to local schoolchildren and with the Green Acres Nursing Home and coordinating trainings, reading contests, and reading celebrations.

Send comments to readacross@nea.org