Day 31

Many of us remember sitting in our parents’ laps while they read and imparted early literacy skills to us.  Often, students at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind (SCSDB) do not have exposure to books during their early development years which is detrimental to their progress in learning to read. Knowing that easy access to a variety of books is crucial to helping students achieve literacy, educational leaders at SCSDB approached the Foundation with an idea. They wanted to establish classroom libraries for each grade in all 3 campus schools. This led to the creation of the Libraries for Literacy program.

With the support of ten funders, we raised more than $48,000. Using this money, we were able to create classroom libraries on campus to serve students from PreK through 12^th grade, and 2 mobile Libraries to serve sensory-disabled students across South Carolina. We stocked the libraries with braille books, large print books, graphic novels, talking books, and other reading materials in adaptive formats. As reported by Gabrielle Wriborg, Curriculum and Assessment Coordinator at SCSDB, the results of building the classroom libraries have been very positive.  More than 60% of early elementary students maintained their reading skills or showed growth following the summer break. We are grateful to Aflac Charitable Foundation, Ball4Good, Believe in Reading, CW & Dorothy G. Love Foundation, Downtown Spartanburg Sertoma Club, Episcopal Church of the Advent, International Paper Foundation, SC Ports Authority, Spartanburg County Foundation, and State Farm for helping our students improve their literacy skills.

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