Pittsford — On Thursday, July 28th, children served by the Maclure Library were treated to a storytelling presentation thanks to a grant from the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF).
Storyteller and author Doug Wilhelm led a fabulous interactive presentation for 76 local children and their families. At the end of the presentation, each child selected two new books to keep from hundreds of titles.
Research shows that children who don’t read over summer vacation tend to lose literacy skills, while children who do read improve their reading abilities. Low-income children and youth often experience greater summer learning losses than their higher-income peers.
CLiF awards Summer Readers grants to organizations serving kids at high risk of experiencing a “summer slide” in literacy skills. The partnership between Maclure Library and CLiF reached Pittsford’s young readers at the greatest risk.
“We had beautiful weather, a great storyteller, lots of books, and lots of kids. What a wonderful combination,” said Shelly Williams, Director of the Maclure Library.
The Maclure Library is a community library serving Pittsford and Florence primarily and is a sister library of the Brandon Free Public Library. Lothrop Elementary School Librarian Christine Tate and Pittsford Recreation Director Jennifer Popp worked with the Maclure Library to facilitate this generous grant from CLiF.
CLiF is a non-profit organization whose mission is to nurture a love of reading and writing among children up to age 12 at higher risk of growing up with low literacy skills throughout New Hampshire and Vermont. Since 1998, CLiF has supported and inspired over 350,000 young readers and writers through its literacy program grants and has given almost $10 million in new, high-quality children’s books. For more information about CLiF and to apply, visit www.clifonline.org.
