Ashleigh Burt

Ashleigh Burt's Fundraiser

Join me in donating to the Iowa Book Challenge and rallying your friends, family, and networks to support Reach Out and Read's work. image

Join me in donating to the Iowa Book Challenge and rallying your friends, family, and networks to support Reach Out and Read's work.

Help make a difference, please give today.

Share:

$210 towards $2,000

Help me foster a love of reading from the start!

I am supporting a clinic so integral to the children and families in Cedar Falls. If my team raises the most money, they will receive a $1,500 gift certificate for books ensuring that children and families will continue to get the books they need. All our participating clinics will receive a brand new box of books.

The UnityPoint Pediatrics clinic at Prairie Parkway in Cedar Falls serves low- income families in the Cedar Falls-Waterloo area. The clinic population reflects the community it serves in that the majority of patients identify as white, but 9% identify as Asian, Black/African American, American Indian & Alaskan Native, or other races. 18% of the population living in Cedar Falls live below the poverty line which is higher than the national average of 12.3%, and the largest demographic living in poverty is females ages 18-24.

Early literacy is something that has always been near and dear to my heart. I was fortunate to grow up in a family of people who all love to read. As a result, my early years were spent curled up in my parents bed before bedtime and either my mom or my dad reading at least one book to my brother and me. As I got older, this bedtime routine turned into each us reading our own individual books, but still having that quality time together as a family. Not only did this time together encourage my continued love of reading and helped immensely in my overall education, but it also solidified the foundational relationships that I developed and continue to have with my parents and my brother.

What ROR does for the clinic and families: Early exposure to language and books has so many benefits for kids, and Reach Out and Read Iowa helps expand that opportunity to more families by distributing and modeling books through their well-child visits with their primary care providers. Many of those families are more at risk of future school failure, and it’s a great opportunity to help support those kids when they are young.
ROR is critical to all families as many parents struggle to find the time and resources to build at home libraries. This program is instrumental in increasing patients' exposure to books and words, as well as building foundational relationships between children and their caregivers.

Please help if you can!

Just a small donation will go a long way to help reach my goal for Reach Out & Read Iowa! Let's make a difference to all our littlest learners!