Women in Focus members joined families at the YWCA for a summer reading book fair “Aloha Books” June 14 at the YWCA in downtown Madison.
It’s all part of Women in Focus Inc.’s emphasis on promoting the importance of literacy for children by encouraging parents to read to their children, making play a learning experience, and encouraging curiosity by helping children discover the world around them.
“Studies show that kids who do well in their whole academic careers are the ones who know the most words when they enter kindergarten,” Sally Hestad, the new president of Women in Focus, told Madison365.
Women In Focus, Inc. is a local non-profit dedicated to supporting the education of students of color. They have an active Literacy Program where they outreach to women and children in the YWCA Third Street program.
“Each year we finish up our Literacy Program at the YWCA with a book fair to encourage the kids to read over the summer and to encourage the mothers to read with their children so that the families can progress in their literacy,” Hestad says. “This year, we chose ‘Aloha Books’ so we could do the Hawaiian theme. It was a lot of fun. We had kids leaving with new books in their sand pails which they used as book bags.”
The children in the program are ages 2-4 years old and the event included singing, dancing, and face painting. Many of the attendees were members of the YWCA Third Street program, which provides affordable apartments, a safe neighborhood for families, and support services and serves single moms with one or two children, birth to four years old, or women in their last trimester of pregnancy.
“This was a fun event. It’s a little different than our normal programming because usually we have the moms separate from the kids – we have two programs, one for adults and one for kids,” Hestad says. “We do this once a month throughout the year and we really try to inspire the moms to use words with the kids to increase their vocabularies. This particular ‘Aloha Books’ event was different because it was for the whole family. It’s a little bit different and a little bigger than our normal get-together.”
All told, there were 12 moms and 17 children who attended the “Aloha Books” book fair, along with 10 Women in Focus volunteers and several YWCA staff, volunteers and interns.
“We told Ian’s Pizza about the event and they decided to support the kids with free pizza for the event,” Hestad says. “So, we were very happy about that.”
The Women In Focus Literacy Program’s purpose is to support and encourage reading and learning for children primarily from low-income homes and for children of color. Established in 2001, it provides the opportunity for children to experience the enjoyment of reading. Thousands of books in English and Spanish have been distributed to Madison-area children at local celebrations like Juneteenth. They also give of their time by reading and distributing books to various community outlets and organizations.
In fact, you will see the women of Women in Focus at Juneteenth at Penn Park this Saturday. “We will be giving away 300 books at the event,” Hestad says.
The next big event for Women in Focus, Hestad says, will be the application process for their “I Have A Dream” scholarships. Each year, Women In Focus, Inc. (WIF) awards scholarships to deserving college-bound students who have been selected by the WIF Scholarship Review Committee. Proceeds from the organization’s annual “I Have a Dream” Scholarship Banquet and Ball, as well as contributions from supporters, are used in funding the awards.
“I don’t think our scholarship program is very well known so we usually don’t have many applicants. We would like it to be better known throughout the community,” Helstad says. “I’m encouraging both male and female students to apply. I think because of our name, Women in Focus, that there can be some confusion that we only give it to females, but that’s not true.
“This past year we were able to give out 15 scholarships of $2,500 each. That was the most we’ve given out yet. We’re hoping to continue that trend,” she adds
Funds for these scholarships are raised at the annual Women in Focus “I Have A Dream” Ball which will take place next year on Jan. 14.
