Read and Ride Marks Another Year
Kids in the Deer Creek Summer Program celebrated their final session with a bike ride and a good book.
Watch WIBW's story on this year's event: https://www.wibw.com/2023/08/04/local-youth-participate-read-ride-with-deer-creek-summer-program/
Read & Ride celebrates the completion of the Deer Creek Summer Program. It is the last event of the local Book Rich Environment (BRE) summer initiative led by United Way of Kaw Valley, Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, Topeka Housing Authority, and the Topeka Community Cycle Project.
“Nearly 4 million low-income children are living in HUD-assisted housing across the country. BRE aims to foster a love of reading and to improve educational outcomes of children living in HUD-assisted housing by distributing free, high quality books to children, promoting literacy activities offered by local libraries and nonprofits, and by strengthening partnerships between public housing authorities, local public libraries and literacy partners to develop and deliver programming to improve educational outcomes of PHA residents.” (Source: https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/2017/HUDNo_17-002)
Guest readers entertained the riders with part the book Mother Bruce at different stops along the route. This year’s readers were Veronica Byrd of USD 501 Parents as Teachers and Topeka Housing Authority and Natalie Moreland of Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library. Mother Bruce was written by Ryan T. Higgins and is a New York Times bestselling book about a bear who unexpectedly finds himself head of a family of goslings. “Bruce the bear likes to keep to himself. That, and eat eggs. But when his hard-boiled goose eggs turn out to be real, live goslings, he starts to lose his appetite. And even worse, the goslings are convinced he's their mother. Bruce tries to get the geese to go south, but he can't seem to rid himself of his new companions. What's a bear to do?”
Our Read and Ride partners are:
TOPEKA COMMUNITY CYCLE PROJECT
The Topeka Community Cycle Project is committed to the reclamation and distribution of recycled bicycles. Through an earn-a-bike program, volunteers refurbish bicycles that would otherwise take up space in a landfill giving new life and utility to bicycles. The Topeka Community Cycle Project promotes self-reliance, sustainability, and healthful living in Topeka.
THE TOPEKA HOUSING AUTHORITY
The Topeka Housing Authority (THA) is the public housing authority for Topeka and Shawnee County Kansas. We provide housing or rental assistance for approximately 4,500 Topekans. We truly want to empower the families we serve to be successful while living with us, and we have created numerous partnerships with awesome companies and organizations in Topeka to do just that.
TOPEKA & SHAWNEE COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
The library’s mission is sparking curiosity and connecting our community through literacy and learning. Our core values are excellence, curiosity, literacy, freedom, teamwork, and accountability. We help transform the lives of citizens through five Community Impact Goals: every child will be ready for kindergarten • everyone will discover their passion for learning • everyone will continue learning new ways to live their best life • Topeka and Shawnee County will be an engaged community of readers • the library will be a learning organization committed to excellence in: leadership, planning, customer focus, process management and partner focus.
SHAWNEE COUNTY CAMPAIGN FOR GRADE-LEVEL READING
SNCO-CGLR is part of a national collaborative effort that works to ensure student success by focusing on an important predictor of high school graduation- reading proficiency by end of 3rd grade. Through a network of community organizations, the Campaign works to reduce the gaps in school readiness, chronic absenteeism, and summer learning loss for children in Shawnee County. The local campaign has received four Pacesetters, a national honor, for creating measurable progress in our community.