Clowns recruited to get kids reading

LYNNWOOD — Readers are leaders and students from College Place Elementary School are getting the chance to be masters of their destiny through reading.

“Duffy” and “Scooter” of Caring Clowns International, who appear at summer school and classroom reading events sponsored by the First Book Sno-King Advisory Board of Lynnwood, were at College Place Elementary School reading to students May 6.

The mission of First Book is to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books, said Nadine McCray, Secretary of First Book Sno-King.

“Our goal is to give children books they can read, take home and keep. We believe the foundations of literacy are laid at a very early age,” McCray said. “Children who have access to books, have been read to at home and are encouraged to read on their own consistently prove to be more successful in school and able to read at grade level.”

First Book Sno-King is a volunteer organization chaired by Lynnwood Rotarian Greg Gourley.

“In many homes today the only book is the telephone book,” Gourley said. “Regardless of a parent’s economic and educational level, studies show that children who have books, magazines, newspapers and dictionaries available to them at home perform better in school.”

First Book Sno-King works in partnership with local organizations and businesses to distribute children’s books in Snohomish and King Counties. Persons interested in volunteering to help the First Book Sno-King Advisory Board distribute books to needy children should call Nadine McCray at 425-775-2372 or Greg Gourley at 425-485-8965.