Donation means reading will grow

Read to Grow has received a $12,000 grant from the Comcast Foundation to support the Books for Kids literacy program.
“Many of our students don’t have access to books at home,” said Kim Johnsky, principal of Fair Haven School, where Comcast recently donated books to students.
Each of the school’s 632 students received a book to take home to build their personal libraries, Read to Grow said in a statement.
The Comcast Foundation grant will “enable Read to Grow’s Books for Kids program to distribute 10,000 new and gently used books to children of limited means in New Haven to encourage literacy,” the agency said in the statement.
Child development and literacy research shows that books are critical to a child’s cognitive and emotional development; and when parents read with and talk to a child, they reinforce the child’s positive approach to books, language and learning, the statement said.
“Comcast is committed to powering dreams in the communities where our customers and our employees live and work,” Doug Guthrie, senior vice president of Comcast’s Western New England Region said in the statement. “We’re so proud that this grant will help to get 10,000 books into the hands of children in New Haven, which aligns with Comcast’s commitment to supporting youth literacy and development initiatives in the cities and towns we serve.”
Read to Grow’s Books for Kids program helps build early literacy for Connecticut youngsters by providing new and gently used children’s books to underserved families, schools, health and child care centers and other organizations. The program distributes more than 1,600 books each week across the state, the statement said.