GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — Raising a Reader turned another page in the chapter of the preliteracy program Tuesday, introducing yet another opportunity that teaches young children in the valley the importance and enjoyment of reading.

Students and parents crowded in a room at the Gordon Cooper Library in Carbondale Tuesday morning to help kick-start the Blue Library Book Bag Month as part of Raising a Reader.

“Today is a very special day,” said children’s librarian Stephanie Sack-Gallup. “You all are going to get a special thing today.”

Sack-Gallup was referring to the blue book bag and local library card students received as part of Raising a Reader. During April, Raising a Reader is providing blue book bags to each child in the 78 Raising a Reader classrooms from Aspen to Parachute to use when they visit the library. The bag is a gift, according to program director Jayne Poss, for the students’ participation in the red bag program over the past seven months.

“The children have always wanted to keep the red book bag, but have learned to share and be responsible for the bags and the treasures it holds — books,” Poss stated in a press release. “Now, they have earned a bag they can keep to encourage frequent visits to the library and serve as a family reminder to keep children’s books in the home.”

Kindergarten and preschool students from Crystal River Elementary School, Blue Lake Preschool, and Head Start were all smiles and ready to read after receiving their gift. Then they stormed the library in search of new literary adventures.

Raising a Reader is an early childhood pre-literacy program designed for children as young as a few months old to 5 years that develops a passion for reading and prereading skills that are an important part of preparing for preschool and kindergarten. The first phase of the program “Read to Me” kicked off in October 2007 with more than 1,300 kids from Aspen to Parachute. Each of the students received a red book bag that allowed them to take books home weekly from school to read with their parents; however, they had to return and share the red book bags.

The Blue Library Book Bag is the second section of the Raising a Reader program that familiarizes the kids with the local libraries and the services it provides, something that Sack-Gallup is very much in support of.

“We are trying to get them aware of reading at as young of an age as possible,” Sack-Gallup said. “There is a proven success in education, and in life, with those who develop early reading skills.”

Reason enough for Cecilia Medina to bring her 4-year-old daughter, Perla Lerma, to the library Tuesday morning.

“It’s an important program because they need to learn how to read and this teaches them how,” Medina said.

Medina, who mainly speaks Spanish, also recognized the role the program plays in helping her daughter learn English and how that will help Perla as she enters preschool this fall. But not without her help. Medina knows that it’s up to her to help Perla develop sound reading skills.

“The program is good, but it’s important to spend time with them at home reading too,” Medina said.

The program also illustrated the wide-range of information that libraries provide. It’s a look into a brave and very enjoyable new world for the students.

Contact John Gardner: 384-9114
jgardner@postindependent.com


Post Independent, Glenwood Springs, Colorado CO