Smile cookie campaign raises over $80,000 for Reading College

“It’s tough. Folks are feeling it in the price of gas and groceries. Those are must-haves, and this is a nice-to-have and folks just dug deep,” she said.

“Red Deer turns up every year and supports this awesome program, and it’s life-changing for the young people who participate in Reading College. It’ll change their educational directory, and it’ll change it for generations.”

Doucette is thrilled that they are able to continue to do this year after year and is grateful to the community for their generosity.

She gave credit to the Foundation for Red Deer Public Schools for their hard work in spreading the word about the campaign and Reading College.

The Reading College runs for an entire month in the summer and is free for students to attend. It offers support to students leaving the second grade for the third grade.

It began 15 years ago and, since then, has helped almost 1,100 children improve their reading and writing abilities.

Students are bused to and from the program at Red Deer Polytechnic and provided breakfast, lunch, and snacks. Morning sessions focus on reading, writing, and word work and in the afternoon, the class reads stories, works on sight words, and does fun activities.

Some of the fun activities include a petting zoo and a visit from a scientist who conducts fun experiments, such as creating slime.

Sue Carmichael, Reading College program coordinator, said this year the month-long program, which begins in June, will have nine teachers and over 80 students.

Last July, 77 students graduated from the program.

“Central Alberta showed up [for the smile cookie campaign], and that is amazing. To me, it shows me how strong they want kids to be able to read because if you can’t read, your choices are so limited,” Carmichael said.

The program will begin again on June 29 and will wrap up on June 24 with a graduation ceremony.

“I wish every school district would have something like this,” Carmichael added. “It is an expensive program, but you either pay now or pay later, in my opinion… I think it’s the best thing that Red Deer Public does is Reading College.”

Samantha Taylor, whose daughter is a graduate of Reading College, also spoke at the ceremony about the impact the program had on her child.

Not only did it help improve her reading, but Taylor said it made her daughter excited about reading.

“She still reads every single day. She’d come home, and she’d teach her little sister all of her skills and now her sister’s upset she doesn’t get to go to Reading College.”

by Ian Gustafson

Smile cookie campaign raises over $80,000 for Reading College

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