The Sweetheart Charity Gala took place at Chatham station in Cary February 19, with proceeds raised going to Read and Feed.
Most Athens students view the Sweetheart Charity Gala as a night to wear their best suits, dresses, and tuxedos; a night to remember for decades. However, the dollars spent on the event go to a great cause: Read and Feed. Athens students who attend the sweetheart charity gala might not realize the significance of the donations that are given.
Read and Feed is a local organization that works throughout all of Wake County and is located by High House Cary. It is an organization that is vital to the success of the children in our community. The charity gala will be held this year and will be open to students in all grades.
“The charity gala is essentially a dance; it’s just a fancy word for a dance that is open to everybody,” said Kristen Worrell, health science teacher.
While many Athens students were present, the audience that will not be seen is the audience that is most benefited from the proceeds of the Gala: the underprivileged elementary school students who need help with their literacy and getting appropriately fed. Read and Feed tackles a huge dilemma in our community that impacts the whole U.S. Fourth graders in public school who can read proficiently have been around 35 percent. The problem with this is that the other 65% of kids who can’t read by 4th grade are 4 times less likely to graduate from high school. This is a huge conflict in today’s society due to the ever-growing need of a high school education.
The rapid growth of technology is causing it to be much more vital for high school diplomas in order to perform well in a career. Each year there are various technological advancements that change the way things function. There is self-check-out, receptionist and various more, as of right now there has been 60 million jobs lost to robots. This advancement has also provided more jobs because there will always be a need for people to fix AI. The only conundrum of this is these types of jobs require a type of higher education. Researchers predict that by the year 2025, two out of three jobs will require more than just a high school diploma. This is a change since in the year 1978 only 28% of jobs required more than a high school diploma.
“I participated in the program for two years and LOVED it. While the tutoring session is short, it provided targeted one on one remediation for the students participating. There were incentives for students to earn rewards at the end of each session, such as free books at their level, ” Beth Lindeaur, 5th grade teacher at Willow Springs Elementary School. This positive story shows how this program endorsed the literature of young students by providing positive reinforcement to enhance their faith in themselves.
“Willow Springs made a point to provide parent sessions at the same time as Read and Feed to communicate strategies that parents could use at home to support their child with reading. This was a great opportunity to get to know our Hispanic families on a more personal level, while helping students and parents at the same time,” Lindeaur, 5th grade teacher at (WSES). Although the Read and Feed program has not been at (WSES) for two years now due to covid, they still provided these children with an everlasting confidence boost, and provided parents with the tools to help their students at home and provided teachers the opportunities to talk to parents in a more personal setting, to understand and to create a better learning environment for the students.
The programs like Read and Feed, Room To Read, Read Ahead, and Jump Ahead, help students daily improve their confidence, comprehension, and ability to succeed in school. Since around 32% of fourth-graders are below the academic reading level, the people who volunteer, support, and create these programs are the key to the success in the communities around the area. Various people lack the ability to grasp the impact these programs have in their towns, counties, and countries. creators such as Jan France, the creator of read and feed, take a deeper look into society and see the things that need to be changed in the communities in the areas surrounded. The program that France started has helped 78% of children who attend the read and feed program improve their reading attitude and confidence.
“This is the 10th year of Read and Feed now but with Covid, they need our support more than ever, ” said Carly O Toole, part of the student council.
