COLORADO SPRINGS, CO — Thousands of at-risk youth across the country this week have the opportunity to receive the latest Dog Man book by author Dav Pilkey in partnership with the Scripps Howard Fund. The Fund supports causes important to KOAA's parent company, The E.W. Scripps Company, and the communities it serves, including Colorado Springs and Pueblo.
We're celebrating the donation of the 1 millionth book for the "If You Give a Child a Book..." campaign. In the seventh year of its campaign, the fund raised $1 million and was able to provide 200,000 books to kids across the country.
Dav Pilkey donated 25,000 copies of the millionth book to the Fund, which will be given to every first through sixth-grade student in the 77 partner Title 1 schools across the country.
“Growing up with reading challenges because of my dyslexia, I was fortunate to have parents who encouraged me to choose the books I wanted to read – books that made me laugh and motivated me to keep turning the page. This was life-changing and made me a lifelong reader and the writer I am today. My hope is that kids everywhere discover the joys of reading for fun," said Pilkey.
KOAA will continue to support this mission as five schools in the Colorado Springs and Pueblo region an estimated 1,000 students at Title I schools this Friday will receive a copy of Dog Man.
The schools are Queen Palmer Elementary (D11), West Elementary (D11), Will Rodgers Elementary (D11), Carmel Community School (D2), and Bradford Elementary (D60).
When books are distributed, schools can celebrate using activity sheets made available by the publisher.
News 5 crews will be out and about at these schools and with the students. Follow along on our social media pages.
You can help us in our journey to provide much-needed books to Title 1 schools in our communities by learning more about the Scripps Howard Fund and donating to If You Give A Child A Book.
According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, children who do not read at grade level by the end of third grade are four times less likely to graduate from high school, and these numbers more than triple for children who experience poverty.
The best way to curb these numbers is to make reading fun for children. Per Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report, a child's frequency of reading books for fun begins to drop from 55% at age 8 to just 35% by the time a child reaches 9-years-old.
In partnering with Scholastic Book Programs, the If You Give A Child A Book campaign allows children to choose their own personal reading materials that they can take home to start their home libraries.
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