Quarterly Newsletter: May 2023

Important dates from Reading Partners South Carolina

May 18: Light Up Literacy

May 26: EOY Volunteer Survey closes

May 31: Take Reading With You book drive ends

June 24: Little Free Library Celebration event at Felix Pinckney Community Center

Program Updates

End of Year Celebrations

We hope you can join your students in celebrating all that was accomplished this year. Check with your program coordinator for more information.

Summer Tutoring

We are changing things up for the summer and will be supporting students at one school in North Charleston during the month of June. If you are interested in tutoring in June, please contact Victoria Felder at victoria.felder@readingpartners.org.

Community Engagement Updates

National Volunteer Week Celebration

National Volunteer Week was April 16-22, 2023! It’s a special week to celebrate and show appreciation to our volunteer tutors. Students and program site coordinators provided our tutors with some awesome goodies to include handwritten notes, heartfelt drawings and special messages on postcards. Volunteer tutors also received Reading Partners tote bags and shout-outs on social media! We love our volunteers and are appreciative of their dedication and service to our students!

Read in Color: Little Free Library Community Event on June 24th

Reading Partners SC is celebrating 10 years in the books! In honor of this legacy, we will install 10 Little Free Libraries on and near the peninsula of Charleston. On June 24, 2023 from 11am-2pm, we will host a free community event at Felix Pinckney Community Center to reveal the last installation of the Little Free Libraries- celebrating Reading Partners, sponsors, and the partners who are making this happen. Come enjoy free food, activities, music, and more. Every child who attends will receive a book! You don’t want to miss it! Click here for more information.

The End of Year Survey: We value your feedback!

The End of the Year Survey has launched! We need your help in planning for our 2023-2024 school year. By completing the survey you are helping inform our continued improvements and ensuring that we provide a rewarding experience for current and future volunteers and students. Every volunteer who completes the EOY survey will be entered into a raffle to win a book of their choice. The survey closes at 5:00 PM PST on Friday May 26th.

If you tutored IN PERSON  this year, please complete the RPT survey here.

If you tutored VIRTUALLY  this year, please complete the RPCx survey here.

Sign Up Today for Fall Tutoring!

Are you looking for a way to connect and make a difference in our community? Volunteering as a Reading Partner tutor is one of the most impactful opportunities you will experience. As one tutor put it, “The program is simple and gets measurable results, but to understand that you have established a relationship, that you’ve actually touched someone else’s life, is something that you really can’t measure.”

For new volunteers, please sign up here and we will follow up with you with the information to include the dates of our tutor orientations in August.

For returning or former tutors who have not responded to the previous communication to your intent to return for the 2023-24 school year, please email us at volunteersc@readingpartners.org and someone will be in touch with more details!

We hope to see you in a classroom or online in the fall! Our virtual version of the program will have a new look and be easier to navigate this year thanks to the folks at Amazon Web Services! If you have an hour or two a week, please consider joining us and spread the word amongst your family, colleagues, friends and acquaintances. We need over 700 volunteers for the 2023-24 school year.

Development Updates

Join us for our 10th-anniversary celebration, Light Up Literacy, at Firefly Distillery

Find more information about this event here.

Our Take Reading With You Online Book Drive ends May 31

Each week our students take home a book from their reading center’s Take Reading With You library. Reading Partners students take home 25+ books during the school year and summer months. For many of our students, Reading Partners is the primary source of new books in their home. We need your help restocking our shelves for the 2023-24 school year so we can get more books into students’ hands. Last year we distributed over 17,000 books to young readers in the Charleston area. 

Click here to donate or purchase books from our online wishlists!

We are awarding a $1,000 college scholarship to a former Reading Partners student

In honor of our 10th anniversary in South Carolina, we are awarding a $1,000 college scholarship to a high-school student who participated in Reading Partners 10 years ago! The winner will be presented with the award at our anniversary event, Light Up Literacy on May 18. We are so excited to reconnect with a former student and hear about their big plans for the future! This scholarship is sponsored by REV Federal Credit Union. 

We welcomed one new board member in March

The South Carolina Board of Directors welcomed a new member, Dr. Elaine Graham, at their March meeting. 

Dr. Elaine Graham is in her 18th year as Principal in the Berkeley County School District at St. Stephen Elementary School. Elaine obtained her Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary Education from South Carolina State University in 1980. She immediately returned to SCSU and obtained a Masters Degree in Elementary Education in 1993. She received her EdD in Educational Administration in 2002 from SCSU. Dr. Graham’s educational experiences at this time span over forty-three years. She has taught every grade in an elementary school, and worked at St. Stephen Elementary School as a Title 1 Facilitator. She left Berkeley County for only three years during her career to work in a neighboring district, Williamsburg County as an assistant principal. Dr. Graham is a firm believer in the quote by MalcomX, “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

Fundraising News

A big “Thank You!” to the following organizations and foundations that made contributions to Reading Partners since our last newsletter edition:

• Great Wave Books has selected Reading Partners as a benefactor of its annual Great Wave of Books Drive, which is running the entire month of May.
• Ingevity made a contribution of $1,000 as a sponsor of our upcoming Light Up Literacy event.
• Hughey Law Firm made a contribution of $2,500 as a sponsor of Light Up Literacy.
• Joye Law Firm made a contribution of $5,000 as a sponsor of Light Up Literacy.
• Old South Carriage Company donated $1,500, a portion of their March 18 & 19 carriage tour profits to Reading Partners. Pictured is RP’s Development Director, Dawn Kahley with Old South Carriage owners Debbie & David Compton. 
• REV Federal Credit Union awarded $3,000 to Reading Partners on REV Day! They also donated $1,000 in diverse children’s books and sponsored the $1,000 college scholarship for a former Reading Partners student. Thanks much to Chris Singleton, local author and Reading Partners’ board member, who made the connection for us with REV.
• SVP Charleston made a contribution of $2,500 as a sponsor of Light Up Literacy.
• WCSC Live 5 is our media partner of Light Up Literacy.