Challenge gift keeps 1,000 students reading After the Bell

For Immediate Release

Contact:

Kecia Greenho

Senior Executive Director, Reading Partners South Carolina

508-561-3537  |  kecia.greenho@readingpartners.org

North Charleston, SC — April 22, 2020

Reading Partners South Carolina is pleased to announce a challenge gift to support 1,000 young readers through their After the Bell campaign. Now through April 30, supporters have the opportunity to triple their donations, thanks to the generosity of Pam and Michael Wilson and the Reading Partners board. After the Bell provides struggling readers attending high poverty elementary schools in Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester Counties with backpacks filled with diverse books and reading activities to help them maintain the reading gains they made before schools closed last month.

Pam Wilson, a longtime Reading Partners tutor, and her husband Michael, approached the literacy nonprofit to offer a challenge gift for the campaign. When After the Bell reaches its goal of $25,000, the couple will fund an additional two hundred backpacks – providing a total of 1,000 students with critical literacy materials at home. Each backpack donation of $125 will also be matched by the Reading Partners board, allowing donors to triple their impact on young readers.

This extended time away from the classroom has devastating impacts on students who are already the most vulnerable to falling behind. Reading Partners is committed to helping students who struggle with reading build a home library and ensure they do not slip backward. The organization is working alongside school administrators to distribute the backpacks in the event that schools do not reopen.

Visit staging.readingpartners.org/south-carolina to donate online before April 30 and help 1,000 Lowcountry students get backpacks filled with books and essential literacy materials.

Thanks to a generous challenge gift from Pam and Michael Wilson, you can help Reading Partners distribute 1,000 reading backpacks to students at risk of falling behind.

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About Reading Partners

For more than 20 years, Reading Partners has empowered students to succeed in reading and in life by engaging community volunteers to provide one-on-one tutoring. Since its founding, the national nonprofit organization has mobilized more than 60,000 community volunteers to provide proven, individualized literacy tutoring to nearly 60,000 elementary school students in over 400 under-resourced schools across ten states and the District of Columbia. Visit staging.readingpartners.org to learn more about our program impact, or connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.