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Courtesy of United Way

Heart of Florida United Way helps students who struggle with reading.

Our customers never cease to inspire us! Heart of Florida United Way recently ordered a selection of 11 different children's titles for a program they launched with The Children's Movement called ReadingPals. One of United Way's primary goals as an organization is to increase high school graduation rates by investing in early childhood education. ReadingPals is just one of the many initiatives United Way has implemented to educate children across the country.

Courtesy of United Way

The ReadingPals program at Heart of Florida United Way helps struggling readers by serving schools in Orange, Osceola and Seminole County. Teachers from both public and private schools provide a list of the top ten students who are struggling with reading and United Way assigns each child on the list a ReadingPal. For thirty minutes every week, the ReadingPal meets with their child to enhance literacy skills. ReadingPals volunteers come from Volunteer Match as well as local universities, companies, and churches in the area.

Teachers love the program because ReadingPals sends their students home with new books. Heart of Florida United Way equips classrooms with literacy kits that contain extra books for students and activity kits for the volunteers. In addition to hardcover copies, students can read from Kindle tablets (two per classroom). They even get their own log-in credentials to continue reading at home!

Courtesy of United Way

BookPal is proud to work with such an amazing organization dedicated to literacy development and education. Thank you for letting us share your story, Jaquala!

Do you have a story to share with us? Let us know by leaving a comment below. We'd love to hear from you!

This post was written by Michelle Drucker, the manager of marketing at BookPal. She is currently reading Sprint by Jake Knapp and The Art of Strategic Leadership by Steven Stowell and Stephanie Mead.