On Wednesday, Aug. 6, young participants of the Cooper Learning Center Summer Reading Institute demonstrated their reading skills with guests, corporate sponsors and representatives from Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper at an open house event.
Now in its ninth year, the six-week Cooper Learning Center Summer Reading Institute is keeping kids academically connected through fun and friendly summer reading camps held at two Camden locations.
The program is made possible thanks to the generous and ongoing support from local businesswoman, Anne E. Koons of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox amd Roach, Realtors, Cherry Hill Office, and the Cooper Women’s Board and the Cooper Foundation.
“I was thrilled to be able to help expand the program this year and hope to continue to do so in the future because seeing these children learn to read, overcome learning disabilities and feel good about themselves makes it all worthwhile,” Koons said. “Watching the fantastic support of the parents this year reminded me of the lessons my parents taught of giving back to our communities and bettering lives through educational opportunities like this program.”
Since its inception, the program has been offered to students in Kindergarten through grade two who live in the Lanning Square neighborhood of Camden. In 2012, the program was expanded to include kindergarten readiness enrichment to pre-school children through the CDI Head Start, a Child Care Center in Camden for children ages 3 through 6.
Thanks to increased donor funding, the program expanded again this year and is offered to both pre-school and school-aged children in the city’s Centerville Section through the Centerville Head Start located on South Eighth Street. In total this year, 50 children are participating in the Summer Reading Institute and 40 preschoolers are taking part in the kindergarten reading readiness program.
