Antioch, California – During the month of March, in coordination with National Reading Month, The well-known Exemeus Blog and California teacher Folami Morris will launch a new project aimed at encouraging young adults to participate in reading. Using the GoFundMe fundraising platform, Morris intends to gather financial contributions from the local community and supporters of young adult literacy, which will help finance the program.
This project, “31 books in 31 days” will bring 31 authors together, including New York Times Best Sellers Sherrilyn Kenyon, Joseph Delaney and Melissa Landers, and Australian writing sensation Paula Weston, to give away autographed copies of their books, which will be raffled off. The books will be given away with prizes that will hopefully encourage student participation. Participants will win points for reading books, reading author interviews and completing quizzes
Folami Morris spoke recently to an interviewer, saying, “To say that reading is a dying art might be a bit of an exaggeration, but perhaps not. Statistics show 25% of Americans will grow up without learning how to read. American students are less prepared for college now than the students that matriculated in 1992. Students who can’t read are less likely to perform well on standardized testing or to be competitive in a classroom where analysis of college level texts is necessary.”
A report by the National Endowment of the Arts has indicated that less than fifty percent of high school seniors are able to read proficiently. Additionally, as much as seven out of ten high school seniors require some form of remediation in order to comprehend the content of the assigned material they are reading.
“The problem in part lies in the tendency of individuals between the ages of 15 and 24 to spend 2.5 hours nightly watching television and less than ten minutes reading.” says Morris. “There is a direct correlation between the time one spends reading as a youth and one’s ability to understand and comprehend diverse sources of reading material as an adult.”
The GoFundMe fundraising campaign will help keep the program free and expand it’s reach to as many schools as possible. The funds raised will go towards the shipment of books, rewards for children who participate, advertisement to additional school districts, and they will enable the program to expand internationally.
The program will run for the entire month of March, National Reading Month, and is open to any school or individual that would like to participate. Currently there are over 30 schools, 4 group homes, and a variety of after school programs participating. You can support this program by checking out the GoFundMe campaign here or reach Morris with the contact information below.
