Students 'Feel the Need To Read'

For the second consecutive year, students from area Title I schools rallied at Freedom High School for a day of fun activities and a reading celebration.

Freedom High senior Elisa Berson and club members of Café Freedom welcomed about 300 students from Forest Hills, Mort, MOSI Partnership and Riverhills elementary schools to campus March 11 for the "I Feel the Need To Read" Literacy Festival.

Forest Hills is the newest addition, joining the other three elementaries that participated last year. As Title I schools, a significant portion of their students receive free or reduced-price lunches.

"It's been great to see all the smiling faces participating in the literacy event," said Berson, the festival coordinator at Freedom.

This year the reading program expanded to two other Hillsborough County high schools. Spoto and Lennard held similar programs March 11.

The four-hour literacy fair at Freedom offered the second-graders a chance to meet and mingle with high school tutors, parent volunteers, teachers and administrators.

They spent the morning at the school football stadium, participating in a rotation of reading exercises and activities. Freedom cheerleaders, football players and members of the Junior ROTC and Drama and Interact clubs served as volunteers.

After lunch the students concluded the festival with the reading of the Dr. Seuss book "Oh, the Places You'll Go!' by Barbara Hancock, the school district's general director of elementary education, and a recital of the NEA Reader's Oath.

Each child received a bag of books and school supplies to take home.

Berson, 18, is following the path of her friend and former Freedom High schoolmate Blake O'Connor, who created the event.

Both students are previous Bezos Scholars, a coveted honor for student leaders sponsored by the Bezos Family Foundation in Aspen, Colo. The foundation provides its scholars an all-expense-paid trip to the Aspen Ideas Festival at the Aspen Institute.

Berson's selection as the second consecutive Bezos Scholars recipient from Freedom High last year was a rare accomplishment for any school, said Linda Shockley of the Aspen Family Foundation.

The foundation kicked in a $1,000 grant to help sponsor the local event. Berson also received a $2,000 early literacy grant from Target.

The honors student is organizing a drowning prevention workshop from 4 to 6:30 p.m. April 1 at the New Tampa YMCA, 16221 Compton Drive. "April Pools Day" will educate families about the dangers of allowing toddlers and young school-aged children to play unsupervised near water.

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