Each week, Meredith Moss profiles a non-profit organization in our community and its specific needs. If your group has a wish list it would like to share, contact Meredith: MMoss@coxohio.com
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Meredith and her “Make a Difference” column have recently been honored with the first “Friend of Philanthropy” award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
Vivian O’Connell, development director for United Rehabilitation Services (URS), reports that there was immediate response from our readers to the recent Make a Difference column for her organization.
“We’ve already received a plasma TV, a refrigerator and a microwave and gift card to Target!” she wrote. “Very exciting!”
Today, we’re focusing on Project READ, the non-profit organization that provides literacy services for children and adults in the Dayton area. Studies show that about one-third of adults read at or below a sixth grade level, making it difficult for them to read the newspaper, a prescription bottle or a bus schedule.
Project READ can help! It recruits and trains reading tutors and English language tutors for children and adults. It matches adults with free GED and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes. And it gives away books throughout the community.
“Project READ is a small organization that makes a big impact,” says executive director Laura Mlazovsky. “We have just a few staff members, but with the help of our amazing volunteers more than 550 children and 125 adults received tutoring services last year.”
Mlazovsky says her organization address a critical problem in the Dayton area: literacy. With the Third Grade Reading Guarantee in effect, hundreds of local children risk retention in the third grade due to their poor reading skills. Tutoring is a proven way to improve the reading skills of both adults and children.
Those who tutor the kids commit an hour per week in one of 50 local schools that partner with Project READ. Adult literacy tutors meet with their students once or twice per week for about an hour at a location of their choice.
Project READ now also offers a new volunteer opportunity: bookstore volunteer. Volunteers help to sort, shelve and organize books at Look At A Book, a bookstore located inside the Antiques Village in Centerville. Since 2008, Look At A Book has donated more than 130,000 books to Project READ! The bookstore volunteer program allows Look At A Book to donate 50 percent of its bookstore sales to the organization.
Distributing books in the community is also a big part of Project READ's mission. Last year, Project READ gave away nearly 12,000 books to schools, non-profit organizations, and directly to children and families in need.
“We do not have a book buying budget,” Mlazovsky says. “Every book we give away was donated. We really depend on the generosity of the general public to supply the books we give away throughout the community.”
You can support Project READ's book giveaway efforts. New or gently used books are accepted at Project READ (located at Sinclair Community College, Building 3, Room 142) or at Look At Book, 661 Lyons Road, Centerville. Call first 937-461-7323 if donating at Sinclair and Project READ staff will meet you at the curb. No need to park!
Project READ will also soon have book collection bins in various Dayton-area businesses to make it even easier to donate books. We’ll keep you posted and let you know where and when the bins are available.
In the meantime, if you would like to be a volunteer tutor or bookstore volunteer, call 937-461-7323 or visit www.project-read.org
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