As most of you may know, this year we are returning to in-person programming in schools in Polk, Dallas, and Warren counties. We have started several of our Power Read programs this month and are still hoping to begin Power Read at several more schools yet this semester. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we virtually served our students last year, connecting 535 students with 375 volunteer mentors and distributing 4,089 books to build their home libraries.
And yet again, this year will look a bit different for us! As we return to schools this fall, all of our mentors will be required to “mask-up” to protect our students who are still not able to be vaccinated for COVID-19. We know this has impacted several of our volunteers, so if you are unable to return to Power Read as a mentor this year, we encourage you to continue to support our work in whatever capacity you are able.
Here are a few ways that you could help support us that do not require you to be “in-person” this fall:
- Sponsor a Power Read student for just $9.62 per week or $41.67 per month. Visit our donation page by clicking here to get started.
- Donate new books for students from our Amazon Wish list.
- Encourage others to volunteer as a reading mentor for the school year (apply online at everybodywinsiowa.org), we still have about 50 students waiting to be matched with a mentor so please help us recruit additional volunteers.
- We are still acquiring videos for our “Storytelling” project (please contact volunteer@everybodywinsiowa.org for additional information).
- Serve on one of our board committees as they are still meeting online this fall project (contact statedirector@everybodywinsiowa.org for additional information).
- And of course you may visit our website for more ways to give.
And a huge thank you to all our mentors who have returned to our in person programming! We know that we have had several delays from schools and other reasons that many of our sites are delayed and haven’t started yet, so thank you so much for your patience and understanding! If you have any questions, please reach out to your Site Coordinator (or if you have not heard from your Site Coordinator yet, please reach out to statedirector@everybodywinsiowa.org).
We know this is another unique program year for us and we appreciate your ongoing support!