Everybody Wins DC helps "at risk" students in the DC school system learn to read by bringing adults into the schools to read with children at lunchtime and helping older students mentor younger ones in reading. In the 2008-09 school year, almost 4,000 students were mentored and over 9,000 books were distributed to students. I have read to a student in the program for many years and I know it to be wonderful. Everybody Wins is making a difference by: (1) helping children learn to read, which is a critically important skill for life and learning, (2) helping children develop self confidence, learning skills generally, and the desire to learn, (3) involving the community in the schools so they know what is going on and can make other contributions, and (4) helping policy makers relate directly to children -- Congressmen and Senators and their staffs read in this program. The community outreach provided by Everybody Wins lets the children, their parents & teachers, and administrators know that we care. Through Everybody Wins, it is not necessary to adopt a child to make a difference in a child's life. There are people close to us who need the help we can provide through Everybody Wins. It is not necessary to go to a developing country to fight poverty. We can do that right here and Everybody Wins DC is doing that every day. Educating at risk children is an important way to fight poverty, to save lives that might otherwise be lost, and to grow healthy contributing citizens that make our country better. I call that making a difference.
I can't say enough good things about Everybody Wins! It was wonderful to watch my student's reading skills improve over the course of the year. I know the program was beneficial to her -- and it was beneficial to me because I got to spend an hour every other week reading and spending time with Sariah. At the end of the year, she had progressed so much that she was selected to read aloud during the Everybody Wins! assembly.
Everybody Wins! DC is the biggest Everybody Wins affiliate in the nation and the largest literacy and mentoring organization in the Washington area. With readers/mentors from Congress, the media, major corporations, law firms, associations and elsewhere, it has a significant impact on the lives of more than 4,000 underprivileged students, as a study of their classroom records and library attendance has shown. It has earned the praise of Sen. Edward Kennedy (a longtime reader at a school near Capitol Hill), former First Lady Laura Bush and many others and is best know for its "Power Lunch" program, in which volunteers read to their elementary school "partners" once a week during lunchtime. Perhaps most of all the program enriches the lives of those who volunteer to help these needy children.