Guernsey County Family Reading Festival Encourages Literacy at Home
Interviewed by WHIZ reporter Gabe Hutton
The Guernsey County Family Reading Festival took place earlier today, serving as a great event to get young students to bring reading home.
The Guernsey County Literacy Council operates through an organization called the East Central Ohio Educational Service Center. The ESC, along with several community partners, held a Family Reading Festival at the Pritchard Laughlin Civic Center, where kids could have fun while being educated.
At the event, there were book character mascots, games, and many more interactive ways to keep the kids entertained, encouraging the youth that reading is fun—not just at school but at home as well.
Lori Robson, Executive Director of Educational Services, explained the purpose behind the event:
“The idea of family reinvestment is just to encourage literacy. We know from research that kids that are immersed in language and literacy, even from birth, can do well not only in school but in life. So it really is about engaging kids and families in all kinds of literacy activities, getting books in the hands of kids. That’s how kids know the calculator, because even in our day to day tabular is only a limited amount of the tabular. But books open up a whole different world of vocabulary, words and language for kids daily,” Robson said.
Families also didn’t go home empty-handed, as there were books, gift bags, and even balloon animals for the kids to take home—something that wouldn’t be possible without the community coming out to the Guernsey County Family Reading Festival year after year.
Robson said the continued support and turnout highlight the success of the event:
“We are immensely proud. And again, it goes back to it’s not just us at the ESC, but really all of us together. I think our first year we might have had maybe a hundred students that came through. Last year we had over 350 books that we gave away because every child gets a book. But it has been a great turnout today already, so we anticipate that we’re going to have even better numbers this year,” said Robson.
