Elizabethtown co-sponsoring Childhood Literacy Event in Harrisburg

Volunteers Wanted for 500 Men Reading Project

January 30, 2013

Elizabethtown College students, staff and faculty members, and alumni will participate once again in the 500 Men Reading Week (formerly the 100 Men Reading Day), a week-long event in which men read books to Harrisburg, Pa.-area elementary and middle school students, as well as share information about their careers and education.

Elizabethtown College, this year a silver sponsor of the event, is seeking men to serve as volunteer readers from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. Friday, March 1. Each reader will visit three groups of students, spending about 25 minutes with each.

The College has been involved with the event since 2007, thanks in part to Assistant Director of Admissions David Stewart's ties to event founder, Floyd Stokes; Stewart and Stokes served on the Dauphin County (Pa.) Fatherhood Taskforce together. Stokes also is a Super Reader in the American Literacy Corporation, the organization behind the 500 Men Reading Week.

"To see the program expand [from 100] to 500 men really says a lot about Floyd's commitment to spreading the importance of literacy to Harrisburg and surrounding communities and, secondly, that there are men who care about education," said Stewart.

To volunteer, contact David Stewart no later than Feb. 14 at stewartd@etown.edu.

For more information on the event, visit SuperReader.org.

(PHOTO: Group of participants in the 2007 event, including David Stewart and former Elizabethtown president, Ted E. Long.)