From its 1966 founding in the public schools in DC, RIF has expanded to other types of programs in the District of Columbia. One very special expansion was the Spanish Education Development Center (SED). 1980 marked the beginning of our long-standing partnership with the SED which has been under the leadership of Martha Egas as the Executive Director over the 29 years of our partnership.
Recently I had the privilege to visit with Martha at the SED Center’s new location on 3100 Kansas Avenue NW which was once a Hahn Shoe Warehouse. In March 2009 the nonprofit relocated from its two smaller Adam Morgan sites to this 24,00 square foot Petworth address. This colorful, state of the art facility may be brand new, but the core values of the center have remained the same.
The SED Center, which purports to be the first bilingual, multicultural preschool in DC, opened in 1971 with the primary goal of offering quality childcare and empowering Spanish speaking and other immigrant communities by responding to their educational needs through various services and initiatives. In 1978 Martha Egas came to the SED family, and two years later she was asked to coordinate and launch their RIF program.
After our tour of the facility, Martha pored over several gigantic binders showing me the history of the SED Center in pictures. Each photograph serves as a testament to the creativity and commitment of the staff, volunteers, and families that have helped SED grow and thrive. At the Center, RIF distributions were and are never mere opportunities for children to receive books. Held around Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter, the distributions double as holiday celebrations where the children’s favorite stories come to life through plays, puppetry and other exciting activities. Lulu Delacre who penned “Arroz con Leche” is among the many children’s book authors and illustrators who have participated in the distributions.
From 1987 to 1990 and in partnership with RIF and a grant from the MacArthur Foundation, the SED Center sent the love of reading into homes with the Storytelling Family Club which allowed families to host reading sessions in their own apartments and other neighborhood settings. A multi-generational, bilingual program, the Club let parents and other adult family members become storytellers for the evening. This worked well as even those adults who were not proficient readers were able to be valuable contributors to the events. To support this endeavor, professional storytellers were occasionally employed to coach and model storytelling methods.
Martha says it is very rewarding to regularly have her former preschool students, who are now parents themselves, return to read and volunteer at distributions because they remember their own experiences with RIF and want to give back. Martha reflected in closing “the main thing is to provide children with opportunities. The love for books begins here. We get that from educating parents about the importance of reading and education.”
Thank you, Martha, for all your great work with these young children and their families!
Nia McLean Programs Unit 1
A highlight of SED Center's RIF program one year was a special visit with other RIF programs at The White House hosted by First Lady Barbara Bush.
Be sure to visit RIF’s BIRTHDAY MEMORY BOOK and tell us before November 3 about your favorite RIF memory!
As Al Green’s chart-topping hit ‘Let’s Stay Together’ floated out of the radio in 1972, Sylvia Parks, of Columbia, S.C., and her fellow volunteers, laid out the books for their very first RIF book distribution. The song was no doubt a harbinger of things to come, because RIF and Richland One have stayed together ever since.
(From left to right.) Ida Thompson with Carol. The W.A. Perry Middle School Civil Air Patrol Cadet Squadron 803 under Major Rosalyn Peterson performing a special tribute to 'It's Your Time', one of Ida's favorite numbers.
The program was always ambitious by design, serving 15 sites in its first year. Oh, but how this program has grown. Richland One RIF is not merely a ‘program’ recognized only in the school houses of Columbia; it’s a galvanizing force in the community. This was evident on Saturday September 12, 2009, when Richland One RIF, with great fanfare, kicked off their 9th annual Reading Rocks Our World literacy celebration. Coinciding with the beginning of the back to school season, the ‘Reading Rocks’ blowout has grown into a daylong festival bringing together thousands of readers, community leaders, and families for a spectacular day. Nationally recognized authors and storytellers made appearances. Captivating dance performances were put on and there was a literacy parade, complete with vintage cars. It all took place at Crayton Middle School, one of the 28 sites that Richland County RIF presently services. Overseeing it all was Ida Thompson, the successor of Sylvia Parks. Ida took over the program when Sylvia retired in 1994. Shortly after overseeing these grand festivities Ida was awarded a great accolade of Literacy Leader by the University of South Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science. Ellen Hinrichs, the executive director of the South Carolina Center for Children’s Books and Literacy, praised Ida for making, “great strides in working to reduce South Carolina’s illiteracy rate”, which unfortunately, is one of the highest in the nation. Richland One RIF presently services 12,000 students annually with 40,000 new books. Entrenched programs such as these are on the front line of the literacy battle. RIF and Richland One rely upon each other. Both have come such a long way since they first placed a RIF book in the hands of a child back in 1972, and for the hundreds of thousands since, it’s a good thing RIF and Richland One have ‘stayed together.’
In the midst of the cotton fields and the silos in rural Mumford, Texas, Clifford the big red dog comes to the only school in this unincorporated community to spark up of the lives of the children. According to Pete Bienski, the superintendent of Mumford ISD,“the children are always excited to receive a book, but 30 years ago, it was less common.”He states that you have to picture the impoverishment of this rural community 30 years ago to truly understand his experience with the program.There was little funding and limited opportunities to motivate the children in the community to read.However, with Mr. Bienski’s dedication and commitment to serve the children, he started a RIF program with only 70 migrant students ranging from grades pre-k through eighth grades and opened doorways to make reading more accessible and enjoyable.
Today, Mumford ISD has 550 students ranging from grades pre-k through twelfth and was named a Blue Ribbon School of 2009 by the U. S. Department of Education! After 30 years, Mr. Bienski still stands behind RIF as “the best government program out there.”RIF has given Mumford ISD the opportunity to assist the children to find the magic in reading.Furthermore, Mr. Bienski states that the most noticeable difference with book ownership is the increase in the children’s interest in the school library. The children feel empowered and want to read more.He says there is no better way to spend money than to buy books to give to children who might not otherwise have that ownership opportunity.
In appreciation for Bienki’s hard work, dedication and the difference he makes in his student’s lives, RIF is proud to feature Mumford ISD as a Flashback Friday!
Happy reading!
Carol
Be sure to visit RIF’s BIRTHDAY MEMORY BOOK and tell us about your favorite RIF memory!
Within three years of its founding in 1966, RIF had spread its book distribution program to include 60 sites in Washington, DC and 10 additional cities. As we prepare for RIF’s 43rd birthday, let’s take a look each Friday prior to the celebration on November 3 at a RIF program that has been in operation for a long period of time.
One of the early sites not in an urban setting was Roane County, Tennessee, an area in rural Appalachia. In 2009, almost thirty years after the program began, we drop by and learn RIF is still going strong, even stronger in the dedication of the volunteers’ commitment to spreading the joy of reading and encouraging children and young people to become life-long readers! RIF of Roane County serves 3500 children in 12 public schools found in Rockwood, Kingston, Oliver Springs and Harriman. In recent years the program has given children the experience of trips to an aquarium, family reading nights, poetry night and a “Give Your Favorite Book An Award” event. In the past year alone, 68 parents and 41 community volunteers participated.
Thirty years and going strong; congratulations to this early RIF program!
Happy reading!
Carol
Be sure to visit RIF’s BIRTHDAY MEMORY BOOK and tell us about your favorite RIF memory!
