A Reading Fundraiser and Dyslexia
Who would have ever thought it. But a couple years ago a mother shared with us how a Read-a-thon fundraiser would change the life of her young daughter.
Kelly P. is a teacher at Richland Elementary and her daughter Claudia is a student there so she was a perfect person to quiz about the Read-a-thon and how both teachers and parents felts about the program.
“We were very excited about the Read-a-thon,” she said. “We got tired of selling the same old products and this was something I especially liked becaused it encouraged my daughter to read.”
What Does This Have to Do With Dyslexia?
“We found out back in the spring that she had dyslexia so we’ve been working a lot with tutors this summer,” Kelly shared.
“We have lots of friends and family who knew that Claudia struggled with her reading. So when we sent out those first emails telling people about the Read-a-thon and asking them to encourage Claudia to read through this Read-a-thon I was overwhelmed at the response. Not only did they make donations but they left encouraging notes.
“As a parent it was nice to see because it wasn’t just me telling her how important reading is. It was family and friends all giving her support.”
Claudia Shines
Claudia did extremely well. In fact she was overwhelmed at the number of sponsors who donated money and left encouraging notes for her.
“I liked the books that I read,” she told us. “I didn’t feel like I was being pressured to do anything. It was sort of fun because my family didn’t have to buy stuff that they already had.”
During her Read-a-thon Claudia read more than any other student and raised more money as well.
When we visited with Kelly and she shared Claudia’s success you could hear the combination of pride the love she felt.
You can see our interview with Kelly here: https://vimeo.com/user33444531
Starting a Read-a-thon at Your School
Elizabeth Williams took over as Fundraising Chairperson for Richland a couple of years ago and was charged with finding an alternative way to raise money.
“Everyone was tired of the same old product fundraiser,” was the common complaint Elizabeth heard from just about everyone. “We had been doing a product catalog fundraiser for like 15 years and everyone was tired of it.”
“So my charge was the find a new option and on the internet I can across Read-a-thon and started looking at the website and thought this is a no brainer.”
Change isn’t always easy though. Elizabeth did worry a little bit about whether she made the right decision or not.
But that didn’t last long. Once word got out that Richland was going to change their focus from selling products to reading the response was overwhelmingly positive.
Debbie Hoggard, one of the reading specialists at Richland, loved the idea.
“We are a big accelerated reader school and really promote that here,” she said. “And when we heard about the Read-a-thon we said it just goes hand in hand with what we already do. “
Afterwards Debbie said the kids just loved the program. They loved reading, logging their sessions and choosing fun prizes.
What Read-a-thons Can Do for Your School
To say that Elizabeth is now a hero at Richland might be an overstatement. But it would be fair to say that everyone at the school is extremely happy that she took the time to research the best Elementary School Fundraisers and came across Read-a-thon.
They raised more than $41,000 their very first time holding a Read-a-thon which was 2 1/2 times more than they had ever raised before.
“The principal loved it, the teachers loved it, the students loved it and the parents loved it because of the educational theme and that we raised two and a half times more money than our previous catalog fundraiser,” Elizabeth told us. “I especially loved it because I look like a hero for recommending it!”
Shouldn’t Your School Focus on Reading?
Read-a-thon was a game changer for Richland.
They raised more money than they ever had before.
They became reading champions.
And they changed the life of one of their students … a dyslexic young lady named Claudia.
