Read Up! Madison Fund
This fund supports the Read Up! program that enhances the afternoon MSCR portion of summer school with literacy-based activities.
Launched in 2014, the Read Up program addresses summer reading loss by distributing free, self-selected books to MMSD students enrolled in the six-week summer school session. It engages parents in strategies for promoting reading with weekly newsletters, encourages the use of public libraries, and reinforces summer reading with various literacy activities facilitated by trained staff during the Madison School and Community Recreation Summer Recreation and Enrichment Centers’ (MSCR-SREC) after summer school programming.
In summer 2017, students who attended Chavez, Hawthorne, Lapham, Lincoln, Mendota, and Stephens elementary fully participated in Read Up. Due to the success of the 2017 Read Up Madison fundraising campaign, we expanded to Nuestro Mundo Community School and Falk Elementary, where students participated in “Book Giveaway-only” sites and received five self-selected books. We exceeded the program goal of serving 1,000 students in 2017, having served 1,193 through the full program and an additional 368 students at Nuestro Mundo and Falk.
A primary goal of Read Up has been to bring this program to scale. We are excited to share that this will be realized in summer 2018, as we will be offering the program at all MMSD Summer School Elementary sites. This program has made a tremendous impact on our community’s children and families, results which would not have been otherwise possible without you!
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