Elevation Church and Promising Pages Encourage Literacy at Bookworm Events
On Wednesday the 27th Elevation Church’s Matthews campus will partner with Promising Pages again to minister to children from Crisis Assistance Ministry through the Bookworm Bootcamp program.
During this event, Elevation Matthews volunteers will assist in selecting books for children from Crisis Assistance Ministry from 10:00 to 11:00 am. Someone dressed in a costume as the character “Erma the Bookworma” will talk to the kids and distribute gifts according to Candice Deleeuw.
Deleeuw is the current “Erma the Bookworma” for the Crisis Assistance Ministry meetings. Deleeuw used to be the one who organized the promising pages events at Elevation but she has recently given up the role and it has been passed on to a different volunteer.
Erma distributes gift wrapped books to children under 2-years-old while the older kids at the events are given books that meet their personal tastes according to Deleeuw.
The event volunteers act as Erma’s “elves” and help her find the perfect book for each child based on conversations between Erma and the children. While volunteers help Erma find books, the Erma figure is the one who physically distributes books.
Deleeuw says that there are usually around five volunteers at each meeting because of space constraints at the location. In contrast to this, the number of children who attend the event varies with each meeting.
While Elevation Church members will volunteer at the event, the event is organized by an outside organization.
“Elevation is all about not reinventing the wheel but partnering with other organizations that are already doing outreach in the community,” said Deleeuw.
The event is hosted by an organization called Promising Pages.
According to Promising Pages website, the nonprofit organization’s goal is to “provide ownership of books to underserved children and cultivate a lifelong love of reading through innovative literacy programs and partnerships.”
The Promising Pages website reports that the book distribution ministry is partially motivated by studies that report children’s chances of dropping out of high school increases fourfold if they don’t learn to read well before the third grade. Parallel with this fact, a Promising Pages video on Bookworm events states that in Charlotte over 60,00 children have little access to reading material at their houses.
The organization’s website states that “Our innovative programs don’t just put books in the hands of children. They put kids on the path to success through a life-long love of reading.”
Promising Pages website boasts that they give away over 100,000 books to children every year.
“Promising Pages does a lot of amazing literacy opportunities for the kids in Charlotte,” said Deleeuw.
One of the programs run by Promising Pages, similar to the event Elevation members will volunteer at, is the Bookworm Bootcamp program.
Promised Pages’ website states that the Bookworm Bootcamp program serves children in kindergarten through third grade. The schools that Promising Pages serve include Title I and Charter schools.
The students who attend also receive gift wrapped books and can choose to take home up to five books each month they attend. The website states the distribution of these books is designed to give students “access to enough books to instill a life-long love of reading.”
Elevation and Promising Pages are working together to help children from Crisis Assistance Ministry. Crisis Assistance Ministry’s website claims the organization helps families in Mecklenburg County who struggle financially by providing for things such as clothing and assisting in paying for rent bills.
The Crisis Assistance Ministry website states, “The mission of Crisis Assistance Ministry is to provide assistance and advocacy for people in financial crisis, helping them move toward self-sufficiency.”
The Elevation and Promising Pages event takes place on Spratt Street in Charlotte. Elevation church regularly volunteers in Bookworm events and will attend another organized Bookworm event held a week later on March 6th. After this, the Elevation calendar lists that a new event will not be held until March 20.
Elevation’s Matthews campus will also work with Promising Pages on March 9th for an event called “Preparing Books for a Brighter Future.” In this event volunteers will work in a warehouse preparing books to be distributed to children.
Elevation’s event page describes the purpose of this event as, “At Promising Pages, our mission is to level the playing field and offer all kids a fair chance at life by giving them the tools they need to succeed at an early age. Those tools are books, a love of reading, and a healthy self-esteem that comes with book ownership.”
