Reason 3: I am passionate about literacy

A few months ago, during the presidential election season, I was very pregnant and read a lot of the news.  In all honesty, the way I was spending my free time was pretty depressing.  In all the mire I sledged through on the internet, I finally got to a breaking point where I just gave up trying to sort all of this out.

I remember thinking to myself, "We aren't getting anywhere; we're just more polarized than ever before."  Then I sort of got to thinking, "Is there anything that we can all collectively agree on?  Maybe if we could all collectively agree on fixing one aspect within society, regardless of political stance, religion, or economic policy, we would actually see change for the better."
So, here I am, eight months pregnant, trying to figure out how I can rally everyone in the world together and change the course of history.  And I came up with a few ideas.  But one has really stuck with me through these few months.

Wouldn't it be nice if everyone could read?  Wouldn't it be cool if we all worked together and taught everyone on the planet to read?  I felt like this was a relatively innocuous goal that most of society would agree was a good idea and it could have a really positive impact.

I don't know if you've read any literacy statistics before, but they're scary.  You can check them out here.  The headline statistic on Begin To Read's website says that 2/3 of students that cannot read proficiently by the end of the 4th grade will end up in jail or on welfare.  Obviously correlation doesn't always equal causation, but it does give me hope that childhood literacy is a valuable place to start making some contributions.

Now, I realize that literacy for the entire world population is a very big goal.  I don't expect my little blog to go viral and for literacy to reach the deepest jungles and most far of places.  But, I kinda thought that a good place to start would be volunteering in reading programs at local schools and teaching my own kids to read.

So, that's what I've been doing.

Since my baby boy was born, we've been doing Sonlight Curriculum with my daughter, and she just loves it.  It's a literature based curriculum, so she receives exposure to a wide variety of books.

It's amazing to see her growth in her love for books over the past year.  Her attention span has markedly increased.  Her vocabulary has grown exponentially.  She takes initiative to read her own books.  More recently, she's expressed deep frustration that she can't read.  I'm so excited to conquer this mountain with her.  It will unlock so many adventures for her!

Then UBAM came along.  As I learned more and more about the literacy opportunities that I could provide for local schools, preschools, and homeschool groups, I was ready to jump on board.

The fact that UBAM is so generous with their matching grant program was a huge seller for me.  I just imagined getting into some of these schools that had a desperate need for quality literature and offering this opportunity.  You can read about it here.

Their Reach for the Stars program is a perfect way to promote literacy and get kids excited about reading!  The kids get pledges from friends and family and then read or are read to over a certain period of time.  If they meet their goals, they receive free books.  That would make me want to read if I was still a kid.  I mean, hello?  I was motivated by a Pizza Hut personal pan pizza and a pin that said "Book-It" on it when I was little.  Free books would have motivated me even more.

As I researched more about UBAM, I saw both a business opportunity and a service opportunity.  I can serve my community by getting books into the places that need them.

Maybe my goal of literacy for everyone is a bit lofty, but I certainly have some great opportunities to promote literacy in the lives of a lot of people here in Charlotte.