It was a good time to be a Long Beach preschooler or third-grader last week.
Long Beach Rotary continued its “Reading by Nine” program by delivering more than 2,000 books, giving one to each 3- and 4-year-old attending the 31 LBUSD Child Development Centers. It was the latest donation in a program that has provided more than 300,000 books and e-books to Long Beach students from preschool to third-grade.
And the Long Beach Public Library Foundation reached the 19th year of its Dictionary Days, announcing every third-grade student in the Long Beach Unified School District will receive a combined dictionary-thesaurus this year. The foundation has distributed more than 135,000 new dictionaries through the program.
A donation from the Farmers & Merchants Bank Foundation made this year’s dictionary donation possible.
A February report from the school district said that of the students returning to in-person classes — following pandemic-induced campus closures — 61% of elementary and 66% of middle school students were reading below grade level, according to the foundation.
“Third grade is an important year for students because it marks their transition from learning to read to reading to learn,” the foundation’s release says. “A dictionary/thesaurus is a crucial resource for many students who are struggling to keep up in school following a long period of distance learning.”
Long Beach Rotary’s “Reading By Nine” program relies on donations from members for funding. This year, the Literacy Committee led by Frank Newell and Nelinia Varenas, raised $84,000.
Te effort has raised nearly $900,000 over the years.
Besides buying books, the money is used for innovative teacher literacy grants, nonprofit early education and literacy programs, and community events supporting literacy.
Club members traditionally go to schools to read to children on book distribution day, and this year, they visited the Child Development Center at Burbank Elementary School.
“Being with all those wonderful children was ‘Chicken Soup for The Soul’,” club member Michael Rivard said after the event, “and gave me a happy heart the rest of the day.”
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