Madison-area bibliophiles gathered at Yahara Bay Distillery to celebrate the magic of books in support of the Madison Reading Project at “Spirits and Stories” last night.
“It went really well. We were really pleased with the turn out,” said Madison Reading Project Executive Director Rowan Childs. “There were a lot of new people and that is always exciting for a non-profit to see new faces at their events. The speakers were just amazing and the crowd was really tuned in and listening tentatively. Everything went really well and we were very pleased.”
(Photo by James Edward Mills)
Five Madison-area authors — Ann Garvin, Ann Imig, Dana Maya, Katrin Talbot and Oscar Mireles — help raise money for the Madison Reading Project. All proceeds for the event went to help continue the Reading Project’s work of getting books and literacy to vulnerable kids in Dane County.
“All five presenters have different styles but they were all so entertaining,” Childs said. “It was a good networking event and a chance for people to learn more about the Madison Reading Project.”
The Madison Reading Project’s mission is to increase literacy rates in Dane County for vulnerable children and encourage a love for reading. This reading-based curriculum supports children in Madison learning that reading can be fun and rewarding. Through reading challenges, games, crafts, learning about children all around the world and each having their own local mentor, they bring a variety of ways to show kids a love for reading.
The event was also a chance for attendees to do arts and crafts while they listened to the speakers. “People really enjoyed the crafts portion of the event,” Childs said.
Disparities in literacy and mathematics in Dane County still persist, but the Madison Reading Project is making strides to incorporate community in their efforts to increase the literacy rates for Madison’s underserved youth. Located inside the Salvation Army Community Center in the Darbo-Worthington neighborhood, students involved in the project have read over 80,000 pages since the program’s start in February 2014.
“The Madison Reading Project has the ‘Big Hairy Goal’ which is to get 5,000 books by the end of the year into kids hands, specifically those kids identified as ‘vulnerable,’” Childs says. “Last December, we gave out 200 books and those were specific – we try to match them up to the exact book that they want or get them something at the reading level and the genre that they would be excited to read.”
