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THIS PAGE SPONSORED BY PETERSON ANTHONY INSURANCE
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06/29/2012
Representatives from 30 organizations gathered at Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation's (SMIF) office in Owatonna to receive donated books through the BookStart program, a partnership between SMIF and Capstone. This grant program is one of SMIF's early childhood efforts focused on providing resources so all children can have a healthy life of learning, achieving, and succeeding. 10,000 books were given away Thursday, a total value of $179,390.
BookStart, now in its tenth year, has put approximately 50,000 books into the homes of children across southern Minnesota. The goal is that every child has a book of his or her own at home to read or be read to by family members, which promotes a life-long love for reading.
"We are pleased to be able to partner with Capstone to provide these books to promote early literacy and learning for our young children," notes SMIF's President and CEO Tim Penny. "We believe investing in our young children is a long-term strategy that will lead to a capable workforce."
The organizations were selected because they provide outstanding early literacy opportunities for young children and their families within their community. Each organization will incorporate the books into an event where young children will receive one of the books to take home and keep.
The following organizations received books through SMIF's BookStart grant program:
Youth First - Fairmont ECI--Multiple events for families with young children
St. Paul Lutheran - Fairmont Pre-Kindergarten--"School to Home"
Blooming Prairie Elementary--Awesome Blossom Early Readers
CCRR Head Start in Freeborn County--"Grandmothers & Moms READ"/" Dads READ"
GFW - ECFE--"Dad and Me Read"
St. James ECFE/School Readiness--"Early Childhood Holiday Open House"
Waseca FEC--"Reach Out and Read!"
Fillmore Central Community Education--"Summer Reading Family Fun"
Freeborn Co. Public Health/Healthy Families--"Healthy Families Home Visiting Program"
Help Me Grow, Waseca County--"Help Me Grow Referral Process"
Kasson-Mantorville Community Education--"Read Around Town"
Kasson-Mantorville ECSE--"Books in the hands of children"
Kingsland Preschoo-l-"Spring Valley Reading Together"
Little Giants Early Learning Center, Blue Earth--"Wanna be a BookWorm?"
Little Red Caboose, St. James--"Outdoor Reading Adventures"
Madison Elementary, Winona--"Educating All Kids Activity Nights (Project PEAK)"
Mankato Adult Basic Education--"Through the Hands of Parents"/"ESL Family Literacy 'Book a Month' Program"
Montgomery Lonsdale Early Childhood Coalition--"KickSTART to Kindergarten"/"Kindergarten Round-up"/"Snuggle up and Read"
New Ulm ECFE--"Read With Me"
Northfield ECI Foundation-"Kindergartener for a Day!"
Ridgeway Community School--"READ-TO-ME Program"
Riverland Community College, Austin--"Young Student Support through literacy"
Riverway Learning Community,Minnesota City-"Community of Readers"
Rushford Peterson Schools--"R-P Reads"
SEMCAC--"Welcome to School Kits"
Sibley County Public Health & Human Services--"Reading: The Gift That Lasts a Lifetime"
Southland Early Childhood--"Adam's Got Books?"
Freeborn Co. Thrive Initiative--"Thrive Worksite Education in Freeborn County"
Tri-Valley Opportunity Council Inc, Migrant Head Start, Rochester--"School to Home"
Watonwan County Human Services/Public Health--"Building Brains and Bodies Through Books"
As part of its strategy to invest in economic growth here in southern Minnesota, SMIF has supported early childhood efforts to make certain all children enter school fully encouraged, prepared, and supported for learning success. Over the past nine years, SMIF has invested $1 million annually for early childhood development initiatives. For more information about SMIF's early childhood programs, contact Teri Steckelberg at teris@smifoundation.org or 507-455-3215.
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ROD HALVORSEN
© 2010 KSUM.
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