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Services
Read Now!
www.readnowonline.org
Read Now is an all volunteer project designed to bring books and provide volunteer readers for disadvantaged young children. Our major target group is pre-school children in and around Paterson. We are affiliated with Children’s Aid and Family Services. For several months, a small group has been working researching literacy programs both locally and nationally. Our initial work has included finding sources of books and places where we can distribute books and read to children. We are now ready to expand our services. In The Beginning We Partnered with Other Groups: Volunteered in the Paterson Library’s “Let’s Read” program. 2 to 6 year old children came with their parents. We read with the children and presented each regular participant with a new book at the end of the 12 week session. The books were provided by FirstBook, a national non-profit book distribution program. Read and distributed books at a Family Book Fair at St Paul’s Community Development Corporation. These were used books donated by members of our group. Participated in Jumpstart’s Read for the Record program. This was a national one day effort to read the same book to as many children as possible nationwide. The book was The Little Engine that Could, and we were able to read to 32 children at 2 sites. The children received a copy of the book to keep. We have now expanded and now read and distrubute books in Paterson, Englewood, Hackensack, Passaic and Teaneck. Volunteers are the life blood of Read Now! Starting with a small group of women, the volunteer pool now includes men, teenagers, a college student and a family. There are also non-reading jobs, such as book distribution, book procurement and publicity. What Do We Need? There is no question about the need! We are seeking to reach as many disadvantaged youngsters as possible, reading to them and/or giving them books to keep.
Lolly Burgin, Project Director |
Who Are We?