Monday, October 6, 2008

Corduroy to Promote Early Education


I know what you may be thinking, corduroy.. as in the pants we wore back in the 60's and 70's as kids. Nope! It's a children's book and it was used to jump start the Jumpstart's Read for the Record Campaign to set a world record for the world's largest shared reading experience on the same day with the same book. Read for the Record Campaign is Jumpstart's annual event. This year's book Corduroy is about a teddy bear's adventure in a department store.

I happened to watching the Today's Show with Matt, Meredith, Ann and Al on October 2nd. The rapper LL Cool J, Honorary Spokesperson, and actress, Mary-Louise Parker, singer/songwriter, Jesse McCartney, actor Greg Kinnear and Maria from Sesame Street read Corduroy on The Today Show for Jumpstart's Read for the Record! They were set up on the Plaza with lots of little fidgie' (fidg-i) sitting and listening to the story.

Jumpstart advocates for adults to read to children at an early age. Children that are read to at a pre-school age develop skills that prepare them to thrive in school. The Jumpstart model is quite successful. And, their Read for the Record Campaign created national awareness. This campaign is an excellent example of how one organization can reach the stars (no pun intended). With celebrity-readers, national broadcast network support, and communities & schools reading on the same day, the same book and breaking a record is amazing. Aside from the national pr, Jumpstart has an excellent and solid track record of making an impact. Impact being the measured progress and success of kids and the number of children served through the program. It was recently named one of the top charities by Fast Company's Social Capitalist Awards.