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Sunday, August 25, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nonprofit group promotes literacy in local public schools

Clark County Reads collects and distributes books to bolster libraries, provides volunteers to share stories with children

The Clark County Reads program is 8,000 steps closer to eradicating illiteracy in Southern Nevada.

Over the past year, the nonprofit program collected thousands of books and donated 8,000 age-appropriate tomes to 13 local elementary schools whose libraries are in desperate need of new inventory.

But 50 schools in the Clark County School District still do not contain the minimum state standard of 16,000 volumes per library, Clark County Reads representatives say.

"It comes down to dollars," Deb Hegna, development coordinator for the Clark County Public Education Foundation, said. The foundation sponsors the Clark County Reads program.

The annual book allocation for each Nevada student is $7, while the average cost for a book is $14 to $25, Hegna said.

The state standard is to maintain at least 20 library books for each student, Hegna said. Yet in Clark County, there's only an 11-to-1 ratio.

The lack of quality materials means many children aren't being drawn into reading at an early age, which could affect the rest of their lives, Hegna noted. Children who don't have many opportunities to read typically don't learn to read well, which can create problems for them as adults.

According to Clark County Reads statistics, 7 percent of Clark County residents have great difficulty reading, while 44 percent can read, but not well.

Low literacy can prevent people from getting jobs with good incomes, which in turn can create problems that make it difficult to learn.

Forty-three percent of people who have difficulty with basic reading live in poverty, 17 percent receive food stamps, and 70 percent have no job or a part-time job, according to Clark County Reads statistics.

But Beth Sandoz, assistant program manager, said the Clark County Reads program can help battle illiteracy by providing schools with new and interesting material. Volunteers who go into local schools one hour a week for 10 weeks to read to students can help increase their interest in books as well, Sandoz added.

"We try to get them young. We try to encourage parents to read to their children, of course, but we couldn't do this program without the volunteers reading to the children," Sandoz said. "That's how people develop a love of reading is being read to. If you have someone who comes to your school every week and reads to you it's a special time, it makes them feel important."

The program has 50 volunteers but always needs more to help sort books or read to children, Sandoz noted.

People who want to help can volunteer or they can make a cash donation that would be used for new books.

"It's not the size of the donation that matters, it's doing something," Sandoz said.

For more information, call 799-5437.