|
| History
 Book Worm Angels was founded in 1999 by Kermit Myers, a retired entrepreneur.
After retiring, Kermit served as a volunteer teacher’s aide at
Richard
Byrd
Academy in
Chicago’s Cabrini Green area with W.I.T.S. (Working In The Schools). He observed that the at-risk children in the public school to which he was assigned were typically reading below grade level and had no interest in reading for recreation.
He concluded there was no history of “fun” reading at home, and the way to stimulate that reading was to:
| 1. |
Provide a lending library in each classroom, with no penalty for lost or damaged books. |
| 2. |
Include the parents/caregivers in at-home reading by requesting they spend 20-30 minutes anight reading with their children, with the television set, CD/DVD player, or radio turned off. A mandatory part of the program is a letter from the Principal to the parents/caregivers which includes this instruction. |
| 3. |
Involve teachers, Principals and Lead Literacy Instructors in the program through classroom participation and communication with parents/caregivers. |
He further concluded there are thousands of surplus children’s books among families where reading was encouraged by parents. Accordingly, book drives involving local community organizations and schools are used to collect books.
The program was successfully pilot tested in 3 Cabrini area schools for 3 years. Expansion into more schools began in 2003.
| Year Opened |
Total Schools Served |
|
1999
|
1
|
|
2000
|
1
|
|
2001
|
3
|
|
2002
|
4
|
|
2003
|
11
|
|
2004
|
23
|
|
2005
|
50
|
|
2006
|
82
|
|
2007
|
120
|
|
2008
|
142
|
Book Worm Angels now serves over 73,000 at-risk students in the Chicago Public School System with lending libraries in 2,900 classrooms. Since its inception, Book Worm Angels has collected over 1,100,000 books.
Until 18 months ago, the growth of the organization was funded entirely by its Board. Since then, however, successful, active fund-raising has taken place among corporations, foundations, and individuals.
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