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Every Child A Readers Honors Many, Including Century Group
June 25, 2009
Outstanding child care center teachers and community supporters were honored Wednesday by the Every Child a Reader in Escambia (ECARE) program, including a Century foundation.
The honors were presented at the first Appleseeds Awards and Recognition Ceremony.
The Teaspoon Foundation of Century, represented by Jack Moran, was honored at the program for their support and contributions as a community partner of ECARE. The Teaspoon Foundation was responsible for bringing the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to Escambia County with plans to provide a free book every month for every child under five years old.
The goal of Appleseeds is to acknowledge the excellence of the childcare providers who are teaching our children at the most critical points of their lives: ages newborn – five years old. The goal of ECARE is that all children entering Kindergarten in the Escambia County School District in 2011 will be ready for Kindergarten as measured by then current standards. In turn, the students will test proficient on the reading portion of the FCAT in 2014.
It is proven that strong parenting and high-quality preschool programs lay a solid literacy foundation that helps children learn to read when they get to Kindergarten. This critical skill serves children far beyond elementary school. It also predicts high school graduation based upon a student’s early reading ability, according to ECARE Executive Director Clairen Reese.
Appleseeds is similar to the county school system’s K-12 Teacher of the Year Program. Every Child a Reader’s goal is to shine a light on the “best of the best” child care teachers which will, in turn, reinforce to these teachers how extremely important their work is; will help to recruit other potential child care teachers to the profession; and will share their fine work with the community, Reese said.
The Escambia County Child Care Teacher of the Year was Pamela Broughton of Malena’s Mini School I. Other finalists were Donna Hendrix of O.J. Semmes Elementary Head 
Start, Sharon Law of Jamison Street Preschool, Shannon Nolan of Malena’s Mini School II, Shirley McCants of McCants’ Family Home of Learning, Karen Radford of Blue Angel Early Learning Center, Michelle Smith of WEE Children’s Center – West Pensacola Baptist Church, Terri Odom of Cokesbury Children’s Center and Tammy Warren of Escambia County Head Start.
Other community partners honored at the program were The Studer Group, Barnes and Noble, Leadership Pensacola Class of 2007, Wal-Mart of Navy Boulevard, Wal-Mart of Creighton Road, Wal-Mart of Mobile Highway, Downtown Rotary, The Escambia – Santa Rosa Bar Association, Medline Industries, Bonefish Grill, Margaret Stopp, Diane Hutcherson and Bruce Caton.
Teaspoon Foundation
The Teaspoon Foundation invests in young people. The Teaspoon Foundation is involved in the investigation, locating, authenticating and preserving the artifacts, history, and heritage of Teaspoon as a Pre-Revolutionary period; facilitating and promoting cultural and heritage education in North Escambia County; and improving the quality of life in North Escambia County, especially the Century area.
The Teaspoon Foundation is involved with the Early Learning Coalition of Florida to put free books into the hands of children between the ages of zero and five through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. They found a way to completely sponsor every single child in Century to have these free books delivered right to their doorstep until they start kindergarten.
The group is involved in the Teaspoon Heritage Society where Children’s Heritage Parties are held where the experiences of the elderly are told to children in a “pizza party setting” and video taped during the process. They also host The Imagination Library Reading Party – a monthly reading party where the children bring their favorite Imagination Library books to a party and volunteers read to them, while their parents watch and learn how to read to and engage children in the learning to read process.
Pictured top: Jack Moran (in the mult-colored shirt) stands in the background as guests sign in for ECARE’s official community kickoff in June 2008 at Heritage Hall in Pensacola. Photo courtesy ECARE. Picturd middle inset: The Teaspoon Foundation brought Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to Escambia County. Pictured bottom inset: Some of the books that were offered by Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
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2 Responses to “Every Child A Readers Honors Many, Including Century Group”
Imagination Library is totally free to the participants, and is available to expectant mothers as well.
The Dolly Parton Imagination Library is such a wonderful program! The children are so excited to watch the mail for their very own book each month in the mail! Most children treasure their books and take very good care of them because they are so proud of them.
If anyone has a child or knows a child, age 0 to 5, that they would like to enroll in the Dolly Parton Library…stop by Century Pharmacy for the application.
It is a pleasure being part of such an awesome program.