Boys & Girls Clubs of Suncoast Attacks Combats Delinquency With Summer Reading Camp

80% of juvenile inmates are functionally illiterate, stressing the importance of developing good literary habits and skills at a young age. Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast is effectively attacking this declining statistic by again offering their 2011 Summer Reading Camp beginning in June.

Before entering the program, children will be tested and placed based on their actual reading level, not their grade. Results from the 2010 Summer Reading Camp pilot were exceptional with every student increasing their reading skills from their initial pre-test to the programs post-test.

The cost per child is $100 a week, for 10 weeks of summer camp, including the reading program.

Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast is asking community members to step forward and make donations to help ensure that every child has the opportunity to grow up to become Rhodes and Presidential Scholars, like other Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast’s alumni. 

Numerous studies show that summer learning opportunities improve academic outcomes for youth.  Early and sustained summer learning opportunities lead to higher graduation rates and better preparation for college. 

All community partners who want to make a donation or sponsor a child in the Summer Reading Program contact Carla Mattern at (727) 524-2427, x17, or visit www.bgcsun.org 

About the Boys & Girls Club of the Suncoast:

The Boys & Girls Clubs of America movement came to Pinellas County in November 1959 with the founding of the Boys Club of Pinellas Park by Police Chief Maurice L. MacTarsney and Margret “Peg” Nunn.  The Club began operating in January 1960 in an old frame building leased from the City of Pinellas Park with its 1st executive director, James S Hart Jr.  The Boys Clubs of Pinellas, Inc. was chartered in August 1967 when its second club opened at the Northside location in St. Petersburg.  In May 1970, at the urging of both the United Way and the Boys Clubs of America, the Boys Clubs of Pinellas County, Inc. was organized.  In 1991, the Boys Clubs of Pinellas County opened its programs to all youth, forming Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast (BGCS), as we know it today, now with eleven locations.  BGCS under the leadership of Carl R. Lavender, Jr. has the goal “to influence the behavior and the attitudes of each individual boy and girl in a wholesome manner.”  The sole purpose of BGCS is to provide children, youth, their families and the community opportunities for safe, structured, well supervised after school and summer youth programs, with an emphasis on leadership, education and self-sufficiency.  The organization has proven its commitment to service for children and community members with innovative and progressive programming and opportunities.  Supporters of Boys & Girls Clubs include government politicians, law enforcement agency representatives, financial institutions, and education boards, among other concerned citizens.  To find out more or to help, visit www.bgcsuncoast.org.