May Reader's Roadshow- Summertime and the reading is easy.

Summer is here!

During the summer months, Read and Feed focuses on serving children attending schools operating on the traditional calendar in an effort to reduce the “Summer Slide” – the tendency for children to lose the achievements gained during the school year.

Low-income children, who have less access to summer educational opportunities, are more susceptible to the Summer Slide.

The Read and Feed mobile classrooms will serve children from four schools this summer in Wake County:

Yates Mill Elementary at Horseshoe Mobile Home Park, Raleigh

Brentwood Elementary, Raleigh

Cary Elementary at First United Methodist Church, Cary

Holly Ridge Elementary at Maple Ridge Apartments, Holly Springs

The summer format is the same as the regular school year with mobile classrooms traveling to each site. But it is not uncommon to see tutors and children sitting on a shady blanket outside the RV enjoying a nice summer evening! The 9-week summer session provides a great opportunity for volunteer tutors who cannot commit to the longer school year sessions.

Read and Feed has a new Advisory Council

Read and Feed's new Advisory Council members have been appointed for 2016-2019. The goal of the council is to help with Read and Feed’s fundraising efforts by cultivating new donors and implementing a plan to retain existing donors in order to meet annual expenses for mobile classrooms, books, facilities and other expenses.

The following business and education leaders make up the Advisory Council:

Marty Clayton, Duke Energy

Bobbie Furr, Bernard Robinson & Company, LLP

Jan Frantz, Founder

Suzanne Stroud, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated

Cecile Noel, Community Leader

LaRinda Huntley-Kaplan, Community Leader

George Jordan, Developer

We appreciate all of our volunteers during the regular
school year, but we also need volunteer tutors for our summer sites.
The list of sites can be found here.
The summer sessions will be Tuesday-Thursday from June 14 to August 18 from 5-6 p.m. and 6:15-7:15 p.m. Click on each site name to see which day it meets.

Can you help? Please email heather.cross@readandfeed.org or call the office at
919-538-3840 to let us know your availability.

The end of the Read and Feed year is bittersweet for the hundreds of children and tutors that participate in our program. Everyone feels a great sense of accomplishment and pride along with a bit of sadness in knowing that the relationships may be coming to an end.

But the last Read and Feed session is a time for fun and celebration! The children enjoy pizza and sweet treats, and most site leads organize games or special reading events for the children.

Fifth grade participants are given graduation certificates and a copy of the Dr. Seuss book, Oh the Places You’ll Go, as they prepare to go to middle school.
Teams race to unscramble letters to spell words

Read and Feed volunteers work hard to help students gain confidence in their reading and writing abilities. Going to middle school can be intimidating, and feeling on par with the other students can help kids feel at ease.

Fifth grader, Jose, says he is sad that he will no longer be able to go to Read and Feed once he’s in middle school. But Read and Feed has helped prepare Jose for his transition. He says, “I used to have bad grades in reading, but I have improved a lot. When I take tests, it’s easier to answer questions.”

Ashley is another graduating fifth grader who says that Read and Feed helped her to test one level higher at the end of the year. Ashley feels prepared and excited about going to middle school.

Rock and Roast Sponsors

Read and Feed has its first Rock & Roast sponsors!
A special thanks to Dr. Richard Adelman for his Bronze sponsorship and Marc and Cecile Noel for their Silver Sponsorship. This year's Rock and Roast will be on Thursday September 15 at 5:30 p.m. at Marbles Kids Museum.

Sponsorship Levels:

$10,000 Diamond Sponsor - Funds all expenses for 24 children for an entire semester at one of our mobile classroom sites. This includes curriculum, nutritious meals, books, student incentives and the cost to operate the RV.
$5,000 Platinum Sponsor - Covers the cost for one mobile classroom driver, the RV maintenance and fuel for one semester.
$2,500 Gold Sponsor - Feeds all of the children at our 26 sites for one week.
$1,000 Silver Sponsor - Covers the cost for bookbags, school supplies and student incentives for one site for an entire semester.
$500 Bronze Sponsor - Sponsors one child by providing meals, curriculum, a bookbag filled with school supplies and student incentives for one semester.
$250 Friend of Read and Feed Sponsor -Provides student incentives for 10 sites for one week.

If you or your company is interested in being a sponsor, please email katimullan@readandfeed.org.

Summer is here!

Read and Feed has a new Advisory Council

Don't forget our donor challenge. When we raise $25,000 from new donors this year, it will be matched with an additional $25,000 for double the impact. Please click below to donate!