Help us make the change.

Literacy is the foundation of community and economic development.  If you can’t read, how do you follow instructions, manage finances, take orders, understand medical instruction, apply for jobs, get promotions, read to your children and help them with their homework?

Our state has a lot of work to do to improve literacy rates among elementary students. The 2015 M-STEP data examines the number of third-graders who are considered proficient readers. Nearly 50 percent of third-graders in Michigan are considered partially proficient or not proficient readers.  Students who fall below the standards in third grade are more likely to struggle for the rest of their education.

Research shows that reading to young children (ages 6 months to 5 years) not only provides healthy together time for parents, families, and children, it also offers many lifelong benefits.

Increased vocabulary, curiosity, and memory;
Positive associations with books and reading;
Opportunities to build listening skills; and
A foundation for scholastic success.

This is why the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program is so important to communities.  Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that gifts free books to children from birth to age five in participating communities.

The Wexford-Missaukee Imagination Library program, which started in June of 2013, provides a book in the mail each month to children birth to 5 years, who choose to sign up. The only eligibility requirement is that the family live within the service area of the Wexford Missaukee Intermediate School District. (Cadillac, Manton, Mesick, McBain, Pine River, Marion, and Lake City).

The cost of the age-appropriate, monthly book, with postage, is $2.25. The program is funded 100% locally through grants, businesses, and individual donors.  The cost of the program is over $40,000 a year and currently has 1,854 children registered.

This month we have a match opportunity…… up to $10,000, from October 1 –until the 31st, every $1 will be matched 100%.

We need your help to keep books in the hands of children by donating.

$25 will sponsor 1 child to receive a monthly age-appropriate book for 1 year (12 books)
$125 will sponsor 1 child to receive a monthly age-appropriate book for 5 years (60 books)
$250 will sponsor 2 children to receive a monthly age-appropriate book for 5 years (120 books)

Send you checks to
Cadillac Area Community Foundation
201 North Mitchell Street, Ste. 101
Cadillac, MI 49601

Or donate online at www.cadillacfoundation.org  click on DONATE
Please add in the memo:  Book Match

You can help us make a change.  Doreen