"We are asking kids who are coming to the event to bring a book to donate to Kids-to-Kids," she said. "Kids that bring a book to donate will get a chance to participate in a drawing and possibly win an autographed copy of one of R.L. Stine's books. There will be 150 autographed books to give away, so kids will have a decent chance of getting something."
The APPLE program kicked off the first of its activities around this time last year, though the organization started to form last spring. Cranor said the program started as an idea from Gibson and the City Council and took form after city officials had talks with Dr. Lauren Kohut-Rost, superintendent of the Clark County School District's Southeast region.
"We started to talk about how the city could support education even more than they already were," Cranor said. "The mayor wanted to go a step further to really help children and families, and consulted Kohut-Rost, who said that reading is the backbone of everything." Cranor said school district officials agreed with Kohut-Rost, and said that because the district's goal is to achieve literacy by the third grade, reading programs would be very helpful.
According to Cranor, an executive board of community leaders, parents and teachers was created. The partnership then launched its Web site for parents, kids and teachers (www.applepartnership.com) to provide information about the importance of reading and tips for improving reading skills. The site also includes links to literacy sites and games for kids.
The group also created and distributed APPLE baskets to locations around the city, including restaurants and doctors offices.
"The baskets were filled with books with hopes that kids would pick up a book and read when they were somewhere with their family where they would be waiting around and have a few minutes to read," Cranor said.
The group also contributed reading tips and other information to newsletters sent out by the school district.
