A smashing success!

Reading Camp has been a smashing success here in Paducah. Twenty-four campers are enrolled with 23-24 present each day, eager and excited. Although it was iffy only two weeks ago, we wound up with more volunteers than we could accommodate in the end. With a few minor miracles and a herculean effort over the week between General Convention and the start of camp, we managed to get everyone trained and ready to go by Monday morning.

The City Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum visited this morning and the Mayor was our celebrity reader at lunch. All three were impressed. We have campers from all three city elementary schools, two county elementary schools, Metropolis Elementary (Illinois), and twin sisters from Louisville (their grandmother lives in Paducah).

Just before lunch on Monday, Tyler (4th Grader) said, "I think all the teachers here really like me!" You could tell by the way he said it that this hadn't always been his experience. You know, Tyler's right, we do all like him, and he has responded beautifully to Reading Camp.

A teacher who was a bit reluctant on Sunday afternoon asked me this morning to please put her down to teach next year. She could identify measurable and specific improvement in the childrens' work in the phonics center from Monday through Thursday.

A local doctor who came this morning to help in the Pleasure Reading Center thanked us at lunch for this opportunity. He had given us half of his one day off this week!

Tomorrow the campers will each leave with a backpack filled with the school supplies needed for their particular grade and school (even the Louisville two) along with their art work, eight brand new books (two signed by the authors), a Reading Camp t-shirt, and a packet of materials for their parents from the National Literacy Project. They will also have a book they created in the Writing Center, a journal notebook from another learning center, and a scrapbook of photos from the week.

In a few weeks we plan to mail each one a certificate of attendance along with a letter thanking them for coming to Reading Camp and wishing them well in school this fall.

We can't thank you and the Diocese of Lexington Reading Camp group enough for sharing this amazing project with us!

-Rev. Libby Wade is the rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Paducah, KY and has been part of an energetic volunteer group who began a new Reading Camp this week. In addition to the new Reading Camp in Paducah, there's also a new Reading Camp next week in Leesburg, VA.