Reading NOW Grant

January 13 2010

A collaboration between Reading NOW and the ExpERIEnce Children's Museum has resulted in a grant award from the Erie Community Foundation totaling $7,000.  The program is expected to begin in March 2010 and will benefit the entire community.  A small group of students from Pfeiffer-Burleigh Elementary School will be exposed to 10 weeks of reading enrichment, while making connections to the hands-on exhibits at the ExpERIEnce Children's Museum downtown.  Reading NOW and the Museum will develop and write curriculum units that will become a permanent resource at the Museum, to benefit group instruction and classroom visits.

"It's critical that our children make connections to what they read, and real-life examples they see every day", said Chad Bentley, Owner and Business Manager of Reading NOW.   Kristy Bunce, Education Director of the ExpERIEnce Children's Museum, commented that "The museum's interactive exhibits provide the optimal environment for a learner to experience those real-life examples." 

Special thanks to the Erie Community Foundation for supporting this project!

To meet the mission of The Erie Community Foundation, each quarter the board of trustees reviews grant applications and distributes unrestricted dollars to meet local nonprofits’ needs. The board also approves the donor advised and donor designated grants each quarter. At a recent press conference, The Erie Community Foundation distributed $1,359,290 as follows:

• $296,027 to twenty eight education nonprofits
• $19,606 worth of education mini-grants to 24 schools
• $1,043,657 from 385 donor advised & donor designated grants