23 Aug Covelli Enterprises supports Books for Breakfast in Columbus

Covelli Enterprises supports Books for Breakfast in Columbus

Community initiatives help
spur gains in students’ reading scores

At the start of the 2013 school year, only 42 percent of the third-graders in Columbus City Schools passed the state-mandated reading test required to move on to fourth grade.

Two years later, 92 percent of them passed.

What happened?

The Columbus City Schools worked diligently to make sure that its students were reading – all of the time.

School officials wanted students to read not just in the classrooms, but when they were at home or riding school buses.

It was a big project and the schools quickly realized that they needed community partners to help.

Columbus Schools partnered with the Columbus Metropolitan Library to equip the buses with books.

In 2015, Covelli Enterprises joined the initiative, which was then called “Books on the Bus,” because it understood the importance of the work that the schools and the library were doing and wanted to help expand it. That year, “Books on the Bus” collected a record-breaking 8,000 books for students to read while they were riding buses to and from school.

This year, the book drive’s focus has expanded beyond just buses. “Books for Breakfast” seeks to raise at least 8,000 books which would mean that about one-third of the district’s 25,000 elementary students could take a book home for breakfast.

“Our goal is to have one book for each of the students and this drive would make a big dent in that,” said Scott Varner, executive director of strategic communications at the Columbus Schools. “It’s a strong start.”

The drive ends at noon Aug. 31 at the German Village Panera, where people who bring in a book will receive a free breakfast entrée coupon valid on breakfast sandwiches, egg soufflés and oatmeal.

But if you can’t make it that day, please consider dropping off a book or a cash donation at any of the Columbus Metropolitan Library branches or at any Panera Bread in the Columbus area.

In addition, Covelli Enterprises will present Books for Breakfast with a $5,000 check on the final day of the book drive to be used to purchase additional books.

Donated books can be new or gently used and as for recommendations about titles, Varner said that “Pete the Cat” books have been popular.

In addition to books into children’s hands, Varner said “Books for Breakfast” sends a powerful message to the larger community about the importance of reading.

“Breakfast time is a great time to read. We want young minds to be engaged early in the day,” Varner said. “It’s also important for adults to talk about reading and model good reading habit. When we give children a book, it shows them importance of reading.”

Varner said the “Books for Breakfast” campaign and last year’s “Books on the Bus” both show what can happen when the community pulls together.

“We have seen amazing success when we focus on a goal such as third grade reading,” Varner said.

This partnership is a natural fit for Columbus Metropolitan Library, which has made early literacy its top priority. Story times equip families of kids from birth to preschool  with the tools they need for reading success.

The library’s Reading Buddies program offers 15 minutes of one-on-one reading practice for children K-3 and Homework Help Centers provide free after-school help for students K-12. These programs are free at all 23 library locations.

Ben Zenitsky, a spokesperson for the Columbus Metropolitan Library, said the library’s goal is to connect children with books and “to create a love of reading that we hope will stay with kids the rest of their lives.

He said reading is an essential life skill. “It puts people at an immediate advantage in life and an immediate disadvantage if they don’t know how to do it.”

Zenitsky said he hopes that more businesses and organizations work to help promote literacy and a love of books and reading.