Fox 4 is owned by E.W. Scripps, and every year for “National Reading Day,” our company’s charitable organization, the Scripps Howard Foundation, commits to raising money to put books in the hands of kids in need. We call this our "If you give a child a book..." campaign.
Studies show kids who grow up with books in their homes have a major advantage over children who do not. “National Reading Day” is in January, but Fox 4 is raising money now to make sure these kids get the books they need and deserve.
To explain to you the magic of seeing a child read for the first time, we interviewed Brie Babyak, a second grade teacher at Franklin Park Elementary school.
“They make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. They give you the love and attention that you just crave,” she said, when describing how much she adores her students.
She’s been at Franklin Park Elementary School for the last 17 years, and said she knows firsthand the importance of teaching kids to read at a young age.
“They need to foster that love of reading, because if we don't do it in the younger years, it might not trickle on into the upper years. And we want that for their education, so that they want to read and love to read, and then eventually read to learn,” she said.
Ms. Babyak said she’s had experience working with kids who have trouble learning to read at first.
“I have a lot of kids that are like, ‘I don't like to read.’ Well, I'm like, ‘It's okay. We're going to get better at it. And I'm going to show you that you're going to get better at it. And then you will like it,’ And then usually by the end of the year, they're like ‘I can read! look at my AR level and look what I've achieved!’” she said.
Ms. Babyak said for her, there’s no better feeling than seeing a child learn to read.
“When kids actually have that light bulb moment, you're just like, ‘Ahhh!’ And when they feel it, and they just light up. I had a little girl last year, when she read a whole page, she was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I did it. I can read!’ And then that makes them want to read every single day, and continue to grow and just love it. It creates such a foundation for our kids,” she said.
If you’d like to donate, click here. All donations will help kids in Southwest Florida.
