Ready to Read encourages parents to read aloud to their children, beginning at birth, to help prepare them for learning to read. KPL leads this community collaboration of medical practices, human services agencies, preschool classrooms, and nonprofit organizations.
The competition is heating up for the 9th Annual Great Grown-up Spelling Bee! Twenty corporate sponsored teams are poised to participate in the event on Wednesday, November 18, 6-9 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel. This wild and wacky event benefits Ready to Read and 100% of the net proceeds will be used to purchase gift books for children aged birth to five in Kalamazoo County. The competition is guaranteed to be fierce as spellers battle it out for the Spelling Award and their cheerleaders compete for 6 team spirit awards – Most Enthusiastic Team, Most Creative Cheer, Best Costumes, Rookie Team of the Year, Judge’s Choice and Best Bribe for Judges!
Here’s the 2009 team line-up:
- Breakfast Optimist Club
- Bronson Rambling Road Pediatrics
- Community Access Center
- Family and Children’s Services (Sponsored by Jeff Lee, Prudential Preferred Realtors)
- First Day Shoe Fund (Sponsored by Metro Toyota)
- Kalamazoo County Juvenile Home
- Kalamazoo Gazette
- Kalamazoo Literacy Council (Sponsored by Mary Doud and Marge Kars)
- Kalamazoo Roller Derby
- Kalsec
- National City Bank
- Nurse Family Partnership (Sponsored by Kalamazoo Sunrise Rotary)
- Portage District Library (Sponsored by Dr. Nicholas and Barbara Andreadis)
- Schupan & Sons, Inc.
- Schupan Aluminum and Plastic Sales
- SLD Center (Sponsored by B.L. Harroun Fire Protection)
- Stryker
- ThermoFisher Scientific
- Western Michigan University
- Your Gull Road Wal-Mart
Join the fun!
My first placement as a Ready to Read Volunteer was in a Head Start classroom at Eastside Community Center this spring. I loved the experience and plan on being back at Ms. Janet’s class in the fall. One thing I learned is 2 to 5 year olds never get tired of Ed Emberley’s “Go Away, Big Green Monster!”
On the last day of school I was surprised when one of the children announced she wanted to read to me because she’d been particularly shy, rarely raising her voice above a whisper.
As children often do, she looked at a book and made up her own story. “Once there was a boy who wanted a cat,” she said in a very confident voice. As she turned the pages, I realized there was no cat in any illustration. Her entire tale was of a boy who wanted a cat but never got one. What a wonderful storyteller she was, making up a story about something not seen on any page!
Gay Guard-Chamberlin
Kalamazoo Public Library
Volunteer Reader
Book
Gay-Guard-Chamberlain-profile-043
KPL63009-038
I am the coordinator of the Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (W.I.C.) at the Family Health Center in Kalamazoo. As a Ready to Read program site, we give gift books to families with children from birth to five years of age and encourage parents to read aloud. Earlier this week I had an opportunity to model for a mother, the power of a book. I was working in my office and heard a child whining in the next room. I went to see if I could help. I asked the 3 year old, who was squirming in his mother’s lap, if he wanted to read a book with me, and he said yes. I went to retrieve an oversized copy of “The Snowy Day” and I began to read the story aloud to him. The boy was intrigued by the pictures of the snow and fascinated by the fact that he could not see the boy’s feet because they were covered by snow. We continued a wonderful conversation about the story. Before they left the office, the child’s mother told me that she was amazed by the amount of time that this book held his interest!
Irene Allgaier, MA RD
WIC Coordinator, Family Health Center
I first became involved with childhood literacy two years ago through Rotary, when Ann Rohrbaugh suggested I read with local elementary school kids through “Books and Bagels.” I apparently passed, because KPL next asked me to read to preschoolers at Party in the Park 2008. And, apparently none of the kids evaluated me too harshly, because I was invited back again to Party in the Park 2009.
Though having little experience reading to children, especially preschoolers, I've found my participation to be extremely rewarding. The kids have short attention spans and are easily distracted if a storybook character should happen to wander by while you’re reading your book. But, if you’re fortunate enough to have a “good” book, and if you're prepared to make your delivery a little “over the top,” the kids are, during those few short moments, eager, attentive and utterly captivated. This year I was lucky enough to read a book with “pop ups,” and it was precious to see the kids’ faces momentarily “light up” when the page was turned and the story literally “popped” off the page at them.
This is a unique and special event for preschoolers in our community; for hopefully getting kids excited about books so that we might increase childhood literacy in our community and, in turn, open up a world of opportunities. I hope there will be continued support for this event and, should you be offered the opportunity to participate as a reader, I would encourage you to accept.
Kurt Sherwood
Miller Canfield
Book
Volunteer reader, 2009 Party in the Park
kirt-sherwood-reading-1-160
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalamazoopubliclibrary/3576158175/in/set-72157618973564660/
What a great time I had at the "Party in the Park". I loved playing a chicken and clucking my way through the park to the various groups to read them "Chickens to the Rescue!" I even got the children to cluck with me throughout the story. And could the weather have treated us any better! Can't wait to do this again next year. I do have a banana costume and could possibly read a banana story....I don't know...it was so much fun as the chicken.
Kim Elliott
Kalamazoo Regional Chamber of Commerce
Book
Party in the Park 2009
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalamazoopubliclibrary/sets/72157618973564660/I had a WONDERFUL time reading to the kids at the Party in the Park. The goose was a great prop. I changed my voice to have "Gander" read to the kids and ask them questions about the pictures or the rhymes. They were fascinated by him, some even wanting him to bite their hands. I let them stroke his neck. One little child asked me if he was real. I'd love to read to the kids again at next year's Party.
Mary Lou Fleckenstein
Kalamazoo Public Library Volunteer Reader
Answer: A Party in the Park and a whole lot of fun!
Child Care Resources and child care providers through out Kalamazoo County are honored to have been a part of Party in the Park from the beginning. Started as a small gathering of children and their caregivers in Bronson Park twelve years ago, this year’s Party in the Park is expected to draw more than 1500 children! Gathered in groups around the park, children will be enchanted by storybook characters and community leaders as they read their favorite books to the children. Every child will receive a free book to take home, a drink and snack.
Child care providers in homes and centers, parents and grandparents are invited to bring their preschool children to join us at Party in the Park on Wednesday, May 27 at Bronson Park in downtown Kalamazoo. Please RSVP to 269-553-7886 with the number of children and adults.
Party in the Park, an event in honor of “Stand for Children” day, is sponsored by Kalamazoo Public Library’s Ready to Read program, Bronson Children’s Hospital, Great Start Programs of Kalamazoo and Child Care Resources.
Robin Frisbie-Cummings
Child Care Resources
Book
Party in the Park
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http://www.kpl.gov/ready-to-read/party.aspx