RANDOM ACTS: Children challenged to read

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By Stephanie Green

School may be winding down toward summer, but that doesn't mean children should take a vacation from reading. In June, two local nonprofit children's literacy organizations are making summertime reading fun for youngsters and recruiting adults who want to pass along their love of the written word to the next generation of bookworms.

"Read early and often," advises Ernestine Walls Benedict, vice president of marketing for Reading Is Fundamental. "Children who read early end up having higher literacy skills as adults and are more likely to be lifelong readers."

Putting this principle into practice after seeing reading neglected in Washington's public schools, Margaret McNamara, wife of former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, started Reading Is Fundamental, also known as RIF, in 1966. RIF is the nation's oldest and largest literacy nonprofit for children and families.

Last year, RIF partnered with US Airways on the first Read With Kids Challenge, which inspired 16,000 book lovers and parents to read to children up to age 8 for a total of 3.8 million minutes.

Mrs. Benedict explains that the partnership this year has set a goal of logging 5 million minutes of reading time by June 30. Interested readers can go to www.rif.org/read withkids and start their own reading team or join an existing one. Using the honor system, challenge participants log the minutes they spend reading with a child.

Mrs. Benedict says many teachers have become challenge participants, and they can multiply the number of minutes read to their classes by the number of students in their classroom.

RIF has an online feature called Happy Passengers, which is a list of suggested books for challenge participants, including selections such as "Off You Go, Maisy," by Lucy Cousins.

For this year's challenge, RIF has gathered some big names as honorary team captains, including Billy Crystal, Al Roker and Jerry Seinfeld.

All participants will be entered into a raffle featuring prizes including a Walt Disney Resort vacation package, US Airways gift cards and special book collections.

Mrs. Benedict says donations to RIF can be made at www.rif.org.