One of the most important things parents, schools and communities can do is help their youths become good readers. It can be the difference between a child’s success or failure. We know that proficiency in reading is essential to fully developing a sense of well-being amongst our youth. Children who are solid readers perform better in school, have a healthier self-image and become lifelong learners, adding to their viability in an increasingly competitive world.

United Way of Greater Fort Dodge supports the Joy of Reading program that was started and is led by Katie Averill. Promoting early reading and literacy among youth and families in the community is the goal of Joy of Reading- a nonprofit community initiative of the Emily Joy Averill Foundation. Joy of Reading partners with individuals, businesses, schools, the Fort Dodge Public Library and other organizations to create a culture of reading in our community by encouraging our youth to become good, avid readers who will learn the joy of reading.

Child development experts understand that from birth through third grade, children learn to read; from fourth grade and throughout the rest of their lives, they read to learn. The last 30 years of reading research confirms that children who are not proficient readers by the end of third grade are much more likely to struggle academically and not reach their full learning potential. It ratifies this simple formula – regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic background, students who read the most, read the best, achieve the most, and advance to higher levels of education.

The mission of Joy of Reading is to motivate young children to read by working with them, their parents and community members to make reading a joyful and fun experience and a beneficial part of everyday life. By using the networks already in place in our community, Joy of Reading connects youth and their parents with resources that foster improved reading ability and an appreciation of reading.

Research also shows that it is very important to lay a strong reading foundation for children even before they begin kindergarten. Hence, reading absolutely must begin in the home. In fact, studies have shown that reading aloud to children for only 20 minutes each day, starting practically at birth, has an enormous impact on their development and their future reading ability.

The Joy of Reading Bookmobile was born out of an idea by Katie Averill as a means for getting books in the hands of children. So many children unfortunately don’t even have one book in their home or at least an age-appropriate book. The Joy of Reading Bookmobile provides children with free age-appropriate books with no expectation that the books be returned. The Joy of Reading Bookmobile is the only one of its kind affiliated with the Little Free Libraries network. In essence, it is a Little Free Library on wheels. Recently, the Joy of Reading Bookmobile received special recognition from the executive director of the Little Free Library national organization for being an outstanding steward and an important influence for promoting literacy and the love of reading.

Last fall, United Way sponsored a book drive for the Joy of Reading Bookmobile and hundreds of books were generously donated. The community really stepped up to support the program. Over the course of this spring, summer and fall, Katie expects to hand out over a thousand free books to children ages 1-12. These free books for kids are given with the objective that it will motivate youths to read at home and over the summer.

Summer reading by children helps significantly reduce the issue of summer learning loss. A study by the National Center for Education and the Economy shows that low-income students, who may not have the same summer learning opportunities as their affluent peers, lose as much as three months of reading comprehension over the summer months. By the end of fifth grade, they are nearly three grade levels behind their peers. All students, regardless of socioeconomic status, need to read over the summer.

In the information age today, we do most of our reading independently; we have access to information that will teach us anything we want to learn. Unfortunately, many young people today do almost all their reading using the Internet and social media. They rarely pick up a book. The NCEE study found that young people who read books were two times more likely to be above-average readers than those who only read information on their phones and computers.

The Joy of Reading Bookmobile is dedicated to providing access to books to youth in the Fort Dodge community. For more information on the Joy of Reading Bookmobile, please contact United Way of Greater Fort Dodge at 955-8880.

Randy Kuhlman is chief executive officer of the Fort Dodge Community Foundation and United Way.