DALLAS – Earning by Learning, the only nonprofit, incentive-based reading program serving the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, is sponsoring its fifth annual Celebrity Guest Read this Saturday, Feb. 9, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Fifty children from Dallas-area youth centers and family shelters received special invitations to attend the Celebrity Guest Read. Those children will receive an autographed copy of an award-winning children's book, meet the author and hear excerpts of it read by WFAA's Good Morning Texas Host, Brenda Teele. The Celebrity Guest Read is free and open to everyone.
Good Morning Texas Host, Brenda Teele, will read excerpts of "Cookies: Bite Size Life Lessons," the award-winning children's book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Author Amy Rosenthal will autograph copies of the book.
"Children whose lives have been difficult will have a moment to step outside of that world to fantasize and dream," said Thelma Morris-Lindsey, who founded Earning by Learning of Dallas 12 years ago. "I'm simply trying to help children find joy through books."
Earning by Learning conducts programs in more than 60 of the Dallas ISD’s elementary schools. Since 1996, Earning by Learning has encouraged more than 63,000 students to read nearly 600,000 books. In return, Earning by Learning had awarded $1.2 million to elementary-aged children. Children earn cash rewards if they read a series of pre-approved books and can pass a test showing that they comprehended what they read. The children are also taught how to manage the money that they earn. The program includes students in grades K-6.
The reading event Feb. 9 is being sponsored by the UNT Dallas Campus, The Ricky Rudine Memorial Fund of Communities Foundation of Texas, the New Car Dealers Association, Don Herring Mitsubishi, WFAA, Barnes & Noble, XOCOLATL Room, and Bloomfield Photography.
Earning by Learning of Dallas is a community service project of The Ricky Rudine Memorial Fund of Communities Foundation of Texas and the New Car Dealers Association.
The UNT Dallas Campus, which operates under the authority of the University of North Texas in Denton, currently offers junior-, senior- and graduate-level courses leading to bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Once freestanding, the University of North Texas at Dallas will begin recruiting its first freshman class for admission in fall 2009.
Media Contact:
Thelma Morris-Lindsey
Earning by Learning
214-442-1620
tlindsey@eblofdallas.org
www.eblofdallas.org
For More Information:
Gregory Tomlin
Director of Marketing, News and Information
(972) 780-3615
(817) 798-9260 (Cell)
greg.tomlin@unt.edu