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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | May 1, 2014 01:15 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Vanessa Lowery Brown |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Summer Reading Games 2014 |
| In the very near future I will be once again introducing my “Summer Reading Games” resolution (formerly House Resolution 761 of 2012), which proposes to designate the months of June, July and August of 2014 as “Summer Reading Games 2014,” recognize libraries for offering summer reading programs, encourage youth to participate in these programs and urge parents to support and promote reading during the summer months. Since first introducing this resolution in 2012, this legislative initiative has received a huge groundswell of support and has been wildly successful in promoting reading, particularly among grade school students, by developing a model Summer Reading Games program. Through the utilization of this program, students are encouraged to read books over the course of the summer. Those who participate and complete reading assignments earn a medal and formal acknowledgment from my office. More importantly, this and similar programs like it have been proven to stimulate academic retention and intellectual growth. In fact, research commissioned by Johns Hopkins University has shown that disadvantaged youth fall significantly behind other students due to a lack of access to reading materials and the absence of encouragement to read from parents. This research also concluded that a drop in reading outside of the school year for students results in significant achievement gaps both in school and later in life. In other words, reading is truly fundamental to the sustainability of our society. Lastly, not only are summer reading programs effective in supplementing the degree of learning and education of received by our young people, they have also been proven to create additional interest in programs offered by our commonwealth’s local libraries. Therefore, it is my sincere hope that all of my colleagues will join me by supporting this vitally important resolution and implementing similar reading initiatives in your own respective districts. For additional information concerning this resolution, you are asked to please contact Mrs. Jamie Barton with my office at (717) 783-3822 or jbarton@pahouse.net. Those who sponsored last year’s resolution are Representatives: Sonney, Neilson, Heffley, Miranda, Bishop, O’Brien, Clay, Freeman, Donatucci, Kula, Longietti, Caltagirone, Cohen, DiGirolamo, McNeill, Readshaw, Mirabito, Millard, Vereb, Schlossberg, Youngblood, Rock, Kortz, Snyder, Grove, Bizzarro, Painter, Mahoney, P. Daley, Brownlee, Goodman, Denlinger, Kirkland, Molchany, Roebuck, Gingrich, White, Gillen, Murt, D. Costa, Parker and Bradford. |
Introduced as HR859