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“The Very Hungry Caterpillar” will be introduced to a lot of new
young fans this Thursday, October 8th, as volunteers read the
beloved children’s story to Coweta County elementary school
students throughout the day. United Way of Coweta County and student interns with the Teacher Pipeline program are delivering 250 copies of Eric Carle’s “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” to schools and daycare centers throughout this week, in preparation for Thursday’s “Read for the Record” event. Thousands of schools, libraries and daycare center nationwide will participate in Read for the Record, in an attempt to break a world record by reading the same story to over 1 million children in one day. Locally, the United Way provided the books, and they and interns with the Teacher Pipeline program – a high school through college teacher training program based at the Central Educational Center– are organizing Thursday’s literacy event. Last year was the first year the United Way and the teacher interns organized a Coweta event, by donating copies of the children’s story “Corduroy” to schools and reading it to over 5,000 Coweta County children in one day. “United Way in Coweta County is very excited to join Dr. Susan Mullins and CEC’s Teacher Pipeline again this year in Read for the Record,” said Paige Sport, Project Director of the local United Way office. “The event is tremendously empowering for children who actually participate in breaking a world record, in addition to sharing the same book at the same time with children from Asia to Africa to Australia.” “Read for the Record represents an amazing opportunity for the entire community from preschoolers through retirees to join together in an effort to raise awareness of the importance of early childhood literacy,” said Sport. The local United Way office has provided 10 copies of “Caterpillar” for each elementary school, and for several local private schools and daycare centers. Volunteers – including Pipeline interns, retired teachers and other community volunteers – will read the book at the schools, particularly to younger grades. Dr. Susan Mullins – who heads up the Pipeline program – worked with interns Tuesday to sort out the books and begin delivering them. “This morning my CEC Teacher Pipeline Level I teaching interns worked fast and furiously to package books and letters to send to all elementary schools,” said Mullins. “All of our Teacher Pipeline Interns across the county will be reading “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” at neighboring elementary schools as we work to break last year’s record. They are excited about it.” Mullins said that Coweta County School System’s Future Educators Association Chapters in middle and high schools, and the McIntosh Trail Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa International, are also co-sponsoring Thursday’s event. Read for the Record is organized each year to raise public awareness about the importance of childhood literacy. The event is a joint effort between Phi Delta Kappa International, its student organization Future Educators Association and local organizers across the nation and the world.  CEC Teacher Pipeline student Juliann Staples reads from ‘The Very hungry Caterpillar,’ to Atkinson Elementary School Kindergartner Tyrin Cleveland, left, and 3rd grader Tashy Bolton, right. The book will be read to thousands of Coweta students this Thursday, as a part of the ‘Read for the Record” event.  Teacher Pipeline Interns sort out copies of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” at the Central Educational Center Tuesday, in preparation for this Thursday’s Read for the Record” event. The high school teacher interns are delivering the book to Coweta County’s 19 elementary schools and several private schools and daycares this week, after the local United Way donated 250 copies for the event. From the top (clockwise) are teacher interns including Alex Hand, Maureen Gammans, Alex Teal, Beth Whitley, Kayla Wimbish, Brooke Moore and Taylor Carmical. |