BOSTON, Mass. (10/21/08)--The heavy, red-furred dog costume, worn by Dr. Perri Klass’s 13 year-old son, Anatol, was just one of several costumes donned by volunteers, Sunday. Story book legends came to life at the Seaport Hotel in Boston Harbor at the annual Reach Out and Read “Read and Romp” event.
Norman Bridwell’s children’s book character, Clifford the Big Red Dog, was led around to greet youngsters on the arm of his mother, one of the early members of the Reach Out and Read organization.
Dr. Perri Klass joined the Reach Out and Read (ROR) organization 16 years ago, with a passion to promote literacy. She said that today, according to Reach Out and Read statistics, 35 percent of children who enter kindergarten lack the basic language skills they will need to learn to read.
These children come from mostly from low-income families. Without intervention, those children will have low literacy skills and poor economic potential in their adult lives. This is where Reach Out and Read comes in, providing books, while promoting literacy by educating parents on the importance of reading to children at early ages.
A journalism and pediatrics professor currently at New York University, Klass returned to Boston this past weekend on her annual trip to Beantown for the Read and Romp. Despite relocating to New York City for her career, Klass continued her volunteer legacy as a Reach out and Read medical doctor on the Board of Directors.
The Reach Out and Read organization, started in 1989, was an attempt by pediatricians and primary caregivers to become more involved in their clients’ lives. They went beyond conventional healthcare to give low-income children a chance. These doctors and nurses left behind tradition in order to tell parents about the importance of reading in child development. Upon each check –up visit, nurses and doctors provide parents with information on how to read to children at each developmental age as well as sending each child home from his or her appointment with a new book to keep as his or her own.
“The books hold so much meaning, so much pleasure, and so much possibility,” said Klass. “It is so much fun for parents to see their child enjoy a book. It’s inspiring. It’s what we want all children to have. We want every child who comes into the office for medical care, to leave with a book in hand.”
The Read and Romp is a Reach Out and Read event, co-sponsored by the Cabot Corporation, Walden Media, and Scholastic Inc. The event brings in over 80,000 dollars each year that is used to buy books for more than 4,000 ROR programs nation wide. The Read and Romp has helped more than 3.3 million children explore their favorite books.
This year the Seaport Hotel Plaza conference room was transformed into a storybook land, featuring 11 stations, each focusing on a favorite children’s book with an activity to accompany it.
Margaret Wise Bloom’s The Runaway Bunny station gave children the opportunity to coddle live baby bunnies. Next door at Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar station, children make their own butterflies out of clothespins and coffee filters. Laura Joffe Numeroff’s book If you Give a Mouse a Cookie station was in the center of the room and children could decorate their very own cookies. The timeless book Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, by Virginia Lee Burton, recreated a “construction zone” in one corner of the room, with trucks and blocks scattered all over the floor. Throughout the afternoon, the storybook characters literally came to life for the children to enjoy. Clifford the Big Red Dog was joined by Frog and Toad from Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad are Friends as well as several other characters. The children and their parents were busy as bees, moving from station to station as they share each other’s pleasure.
“I think for all of us that work for the program in any capacity,” said Klass. “It’s all about the pleasure that parents and children get together, from reading.”
More than 60 volunteers spent time and energy planning this year’s Read and Romp. Co-chair of the event committee, Kirke Hall from Westwood, MA, said that she has been involved with Reach Out and Read for more than 12 years and she has been working at the Read and Romp for all five years of its existence. “A friend got me involved,” said Hall.
With her husband and both of her children present at the event, Hall said that she got her whole family involved. “ROR can offer its full five year program for a mere $40 per child,” said Hall. “That means that by the time the child enters kindergarten, he or she will have a home library of at least 10 books, and parents who understand the great importance of reading aloud.”
One of a handful of paid employees working the event, Matt Ferraguto has only worked as the communications director for ROR since last December, but he already says that promoting literacy is the “best job ever.” Before ROR, Ferraguto worked as the public relations representative for Senator Kennedy and Congressman Lynch on their political campaigns.
Ferraguto explained that ROR’s crusade is not to teach reading, but to let parents know of their responsibility to read to their children, far before the kids are actually learning to read by themselves.
“I’m about to have my first baby,” said Ferraguto, referring to his wife’s pregnancy. “If it were not for ROR, and if I did not work here, I would never have known that you should read to a 6 month old baby.”
Ferraguto said that studies have shown that spending time talking to a child from infancy to the toddler years can prove to be a much more effective form of preparation for kindergarten than planting children in front of the television.
Abbie Bloom, the event coordinator employed by ROR, said that she thinks the best part about the event is that it is “impossible not to have fun.” Bloom, who has helped to plan the past three Read and Romps, is also planning an ROR fundraiser for adults in the springtime.
“The ‘Read, Romp and Rock’ event is a non-traditional gala fundraiser for adults that will be held on April 3rd this year.” Bloom said, “It’s at The Estate venue, and it will feature dinner by the bite, music, dancing, and games.”
“It’s the perfect night out for, parents, many of whom have brought their children here today and will continue to show their support for ROR by attending the gala in the spring,” she said.
Michael and Joy Surprenant were not only in attendance at this year’s Read and Romp, but they were also sponsors of the event. The Surprenants said that their monetary donation to the event is a reflection of their investment in the importance of reading. They have been bringing their five year-old son to the event since he could walk and he has come to look forward to it.
“We started to support ROR and attend the Read and Romp while we were still reading out loud to him,” said Mrs. Surprenant. “Now he’s starting to read on his own; beginner books. He loves it. That’s part of why we want to promote ROR, we want to let everyone enjoy reading.”
By CATHERINE MOORE
