Foundation Donates Books to Poughkeepsie Students
Just before Poughkeepsie’s students rushed out the school doors for summer vacation, each rising 3rd grader received a brand new copy of the chapter book How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell, thanks to the generosity of the Millman Harris Romano Foundation. “We are thrilled to encourage summer reading for Poughkeepsie youth, and equally thrilled that they can read the book and bring their families to watch the Movie Under the Walkway, for free,” said Jode Millman, foundation chair, on Monday, June 22, as the books were distributed in Poughkeepsie City Elementary Schools.
(L to R) Nicole Guenkel, Head of Youth Services at PPLD Dr. Nicole Williams, Superintendent of Poughkeepsie City Schools Warring Academy 3rd Graders with their new books Jode Millman, Millman Harris Romano Foundation Nadine Dargan, Principal of Warring Academy Photo by: Jewel Ratzlaff, PPLD Staff
Dr. Nicole Williams, Superintendent of Poughkeepsie Schools thanked the Foundation saying, “We deeply appreciate this very generous donation of chapter books from the Millman Harris Romano Foundation. We know how important it is for our students to have access to high quality summer learning opportunities to address summer learning loss, specifically robust literacy experiences, which underpin our Mission Literacy initiative. Students set a SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound) reading goal of, minimally, reading and analyzing 35 books, for the school year. This chapter book, How to Train Your Dragon, will be the first book that our rising third graders will read on the road to completing their 35-book journey during the 2015-2016 school year. We encourage all of our students to read voraciously over the summer and to visit the public library. Working in partnership with parents and the community, we will deliver on the promise of a high-quality, world-class education for every child, every day, in every classroom in the Poughkeepsie City School District. We extend a heartfelt thank you to both the Poughkeepsie Public Library and the Millman Harris Romano Foundation for their unwavering support and investment in our students.”