AMERICUS —





Most of us here have always enjoyed reading. Aside from textbooks at school, going to the library to get a book was something that we all relished as children.

We were blessed to have the opportunity and resources to be able to do that.

Many children, even today, in Sumter County, don’t have that opportunity.

Wednesday, a luncheon, sponsored by the Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs of Americus, brought forth a very important issues. Today, approximately 61 percent of low income families do not have a single piece of reading material in their household for a child.

In Georgia, a third of our children come to school unprepared to learn and 75 percent of students who are poor readers in the third grade will remain poor readers in high school. Further, Georgia scored 46th on SATs in 2006, one in four adults in Georgia operates at a low literacy level and low literate workers cost Georgia businesses $7 billion a year.

In this meeting, a representative from the Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy presented those facts and the following:

*Only 28% of Georgia 4th graders read

at or above proficiency

*We have the nations third highest rate

of high school dropouts

* One in four adults in Georgia operates

at a low literacy level

*Illiteracy and low literate workers

cost Atlanta $4.26 billion and Georgia

businesses $7 billion each year

*Several states plan how many jail

cells they will build in the future by

how many children are not reading on

grade level by third grade



But, if we all get together, it was told, this can change. Bill Byram and Steve Stanfield came together with a group of citizens, leaders and educators last year to plan how we can help solve this situation in Sumter County.

Thus, the Ferst Foundation came into the picture. Through the Ferst Foundation, and support of businesses and individuals like you, our readers, and us as well, children, who are registered, from birth until age five, will be sent a book(at no cost to the parents) a month through the mail. These books come from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

What a grand idea! What a beautiful concept! Not only will children be introduced to worlds they may never physically see, but parents and children will have the opportunity to bond together as they explore these new worlds.

Kudos to Byram, Stanfield, and the members of the Kiwanis and Rotary clubs who signed up to become sponsors, and who said, “Go forth with it.”

We at the Americus Times-Recorder look forward to be a partner/sponsor with this group as well as providing information on the program as it begins hopefully in the next few months.