By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press
Copperas Cove Independent School District held the Salute to Literacy event last Thursday evening, recognizing various organizations that have contributed to promoting literacy in the district for decades.
Holly Landez, director of digital learning and innovation, welcomed the crowd to the event.
“I’m just so excited that we’re finally having this event,” Landez said. “Mr. [John] Gallen had a great idea that we wanted to come together to celebrate some great works by multiple establishments, multiple entities, that have very graciously donated their time, materials, effort, brain power, and hearts to make a difference in the lives of our CCISD students, and we’re not just talking about this year or last year or the past five years. We’re talking about decades of service and support.”
The evening included refreshments and a performance by the S.C. Lee Junior High Choir, followed by a poem reading by Fairview/Jewell Elementary 4th grader Kenlie Carlton.
CCISD board vice president John Gallen said that the school board and school district love celebrations, “and we’re here to celebrate all of you,” he told the audience. “Especially the parents, too. You promote literacy in your home. Literacy is important to our society, and it’s important to CCISD, and it needs to be celebrated. From librarians to reading teachers to English Language Arts teachers and all our community partners, to include Fort Hood, that promote literacy for our kids in Copperas Cove and CCISD, we are so thankful that you guys are here.”
The organizations recognized Thursday evening include: Alrusa International of Copperas Cove; Communities in Schools of Greater Central Texas; Copperas Cove Retired Teachers Association; Copperas Cove Rotary Club; Copperas Cove Public Library; Fort Hood Adopt-A-School units; Copperas Cove H-E-B Plus!; Knights of Pythias; Scholastic; the PTOs of Williams-Ledger Elementary, Martin Walker Elementary, Fairview-Jewell Elementary, and House Creek Elementary Schools; and the CCISD Ranger Reading Camp.
Each organization contributed to promoting literacy either through providing books to students, promoting or incentivizing students to read, or supporting the campus and the library.
The Altrusa International of Copperas Cove has purchased approximately 32,000 books for CCISD’s first, second, and third grade students for 20 years.
Communities in Schools has been partnering with Copperas Cove ISD for 30 years, providing support of all kinds for the district’s students, with CIS partners at every campus.
The Copperas Cove Retired Teachers Association has collected and distributed books for all CCISD kindergarten students since 1999, totaling more than 16,000 books.
The Copperas Cove Rotary Club has donated a dictionary to every third-grade student for 14 years, totaling 8,400 dictionaries. Last year, they began donating a book titled “How Money Works” to every eighth grader to teach financial literacy. They have also been sponsoring Fairview-Jewell Elementary for perfect attendance awards, giving away bikes, tablets, and scooters to one boy and one girl each six-week grading period.
The Copperas Cove Public Library holds its annual Summer Reading program, open to the public, to help prevent the Summer Slide, and they also share information of upcoming events to every campus.
The Fort Hood Adopted units promote literacy through reading and tutoring, and they also support their campuses by helping out with Field Day, Career Day and partnering with campuses for their different events.
H-E-B Plus! Provided Back to School Backpacks with school supplies inside to every campus this year, among their various other outreach efforts in partnership with CCISD.
The Knights of Pythias donated over 50 bikes to first grade students in CCISD through their “Read and Ride” program that ran from 2012 to 2020.
The various PTOs at Fairview/Jewell, Martin Walker, Williams/Ledger, and House Creek Elementary Schools regularly partner with their campus librarians to host a Scholastic BOGO book fair, which helps provide all fourth and fifth-grade students the opportunity to select a free book from the book fair. These PTOs have been hosting these book fairs for at least 20 years, accounting for 17,600 books given to upper elementary students.
The CCISD Ranger Reading Camp was a federally funded summer camp run by the district using DODEA grant funds to focus on literacy and reducing the summer slide. First led by Heidi Nelson and then Heather Peacock, this camp served up to 200 students each summer and developed the ES2S and JS2S programs. Each morning of the camp began with a read-aloud, and at the end of each camp day, Ranger Reading Camp participants selected a book to take home and keep, serving as the start of the personal library for so many students.
Fairview-Miss Jewell Librarian Cristine Ragland expressed her thanks to the various organizations.
“I’m honored that as a librarian and a teacher, I was able to be a part of so much of what each of you did, whether it was hosting a book distribution or providing a location for an event, to be here this evening and reflect back over 23 years and all your work,” Ragland said.
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