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Some of the city's best-known leaders have set aside time this summer to enjoy storybooks.
Doctors, lawyers, lawmakers, judges, soldiers, publishers, and radio and TV broadcasters are among more than 200 who will visit the Children's Defense Fund Freedom Schools summer program for story time.
Bringing well-known and accomplished people to visit each day as guest readers is a way to show about 500 children that their future career opportunities are varied, and reading can help them find success in any field.
They'll hear that message this year from people such as former Mayor Harvey Gantt and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools chief Peter Gorman.
At Highland Renaissance Academy last week, one group heard it from Twila Adams, a disabled Army veteran and board member for Paralyzed Veterans of America who rode a scooter onto the stage.
“I do it to make the children aware of the things they can achieve no matter what the disability,” said Adams, who stood briefly to accept a thank-you card and to hug the child who gave it to her for reading “Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale.”
Freedom Schools is modeled after the Freedom Summer Project, in which college students taught poor children in Mississippi and registered their parents to vote in 1964. It is a tuition-free national after-school and summer enrichment program for grade-school students that focuses on literacy.
In the summer of 2008, Freedom Schools served nearly 9,000 children in 61 cities and 24 states.
In Charlotte, Seigle Avenue Partners Inc. sponsors nine locations through partner churches, public schools, colleges and universities.
Three sites are new this year: Johnson C. Smith University, Christ Lutheran Church and Druid Hills Elementary School, which serves homeless children through A Child's Place. The McCrorey YMCA on Beatties Ford Road also sponsors a program.
The day starts with breakfast and Harambee, a 30-minute session that's part pep rally for belief in self, and part cheers and chants that boost reading readiness. A guest reader comes to the stage and reads.
“They demonstrate that reading is important to every person, and they are role models for the children,” said Mary Nell McPherson, executive director for Seigle Avenue Partners. “I think they inspire children to dream of doing things that they never thought of.”
Essence Blye is attending Freedom School for the third year. The program has helped the 10-year-old Piedmont Middle student improve her reading and comprehension, she said. It also has allowed her to meet a lawyer and dream to become one. She has learned other valuable lessons, as well.
“Books carry (you) on to other things,” she said. “You have to read to understand math, social studies and science. I think I will be better in school by reading more.”
