BHHS Gallo Realty holds book drive for Read Aloud Delaware
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Gallo Realty held a book drive in October for Read Aloud Delaware. Management, agents, staff and even a few BHHS Gallo customers and clients purchased and donated more than 120 new books. A variety of books appropriate for children from birth through age 12 will be distributed to Read Aloud centers throughout Sussex County. Currently, there are over 100 reading sites all over Delaware.
The mission of Read Aloud Delaware is to ensure that each preschool child in Delaware is regularly read to one-on-one. Research conducted on literacy shows that children who are read to from an early age have bigger brains, larger vocabularies and greater knowledge of the world around them. Most importantly, they are more likely to have mastered language skills that will permit them to interact appropriately with their teachers and their peers. These skills will help them succeed in school and in life. Children who are read to, talked to, and sung to every day from birth in verbal, educated households will have heard 30 million more words by age 3 than children who grow up in less educated and less verbal environments.
Stacy Penaranda, Sussex County coordinator for Read Aloud Delaware, said, “We are so grateful to BHHS Gallo Realty for believing in our mission and helping us to break the cycle of illiteracy in Sussex County. Andrew Ratner, BHHS Gallo Realty vice president, said he would like to make the book drive an annual fall event at the firm. Ratner said, “We all really enjoyed choosing the books for the drive and know just how important this program is to our local children.”
To learn more about Read Aloud Delaware, donate, or volunteer to read at one of the many locations in Sussex County, go to www.ReadAloudDelaware.org or call Stacy Penaranda at 302-856-2527.
