The Comcast Reading Network

The following programs were funded through The Comcast Reading Network in 2003:

Nashville Public Library 2003 Summer Reading Program

For the third year, The Comcast Foundation funded the Nashville Public Library Summer Reading Program in partnership with the Friends of the Public Library of Nashville and Davidson County. At each of the 21 libraries in the county, a librarian planned a reading agenda and activities to keep the children reading and learning throughout the summer. The 15,000 children who participated were rewarded at the end of the program based on the number of books read and the number of hours spent reading.

Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service Reading Coaches Program

Comcast supports the Reading Coaches Literacy Program in partnership with the annual Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service. On MLK Day, over 1,000 volunteers read books to children about Dr. King and the civil rights movement in six counties throughout the Philadelphia area. The Reading Coaches Program encourages ongoing community involvement by training adults to read to children between the ages of 6 – 10. This interaction between adults and children helps the kids to develop a life-long love of reading.

Florida's “Celebration of Reading” Family Literacy Initiative

As a founding sponsor of this program, The Comcast Foundation supports Governor Jeb Bush’s Family Literacy Initiative throughout the state of Florida. The program highlights the importance of basic reading skills through special programming and public service announcements that are aired on Comcast’s cable systems; the goal of the program is for all students in Florida reading at grade level or higher by 2012. In addition to bringing visibility to Bush’s program, Comcast employees collected over 1,200 books for children ages 6 – 10. Comcast and its more than 4,000 Florida employees also led a statewide reading festival during Comcast Cares Day on October 4th, 2003.

The Comcast Reading Network teams up with Disney to bring “Passport to Reading” Events to Three Comcast cities

The Comcast Reading Network and Disney teamed up to bring “Passport to Reading” events to Denver, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in an effort to highlight their mutual commitment to reading and literacy. The programs use Disney characters to promote reading as an engaging summer and life-long activity while improving students’ literacy skills. Local students read various books throughout the summer and turn in a log of what they’ve read at the completion of the program. In Philadelphia, a drive donated books to the Urban Genesis program and Philadelphia Reads. Playhouse Disney and the Comcast Reading Network will also be donating 5,000 books to First Book, a national non-profit organization that distributes new books to low-income families. The Comcast Reading Network and Toon Disney’s goal for the program is to increase the amount of participants in summer reading programs in these three cities.

“Linkages to the Library” – Montgomery County, Maryland

Comcast supports the Linkages to the Library program, a family literacy program that helps students and their parents improve reading skills and increase the amount of public library customers in Montgomery County, Maryland. The summer program includes a variety of educational activities such as story-time and reading buddies, and programs training parents how to teach reading and the Internet to their children. The program provides reading mentors, storytellers, and computer educators in both English and Spanish. The program trained over 140 volunteer reading buddies to work with approximately 500 children and their parents at 10 different schools and three local libraries in the county. In conjunction with the Linkages to the Library program, the Second Annual Comcast Kids Book Drive collected 1,500 new children’s books at 25 different sites around the county for kids participating in the program.

76ers – Read to Achieve

Another member of the Comcast Family of Companies, The Philadelphia 76ers, is helping children build a lifelong love of reading. Through their Read to Achieve Program, they are giving kids in schools all over the Greater Philadelphia area a fun and exciting experience where team members explain the benefits of reading and read to them. Read to Achieve gives team members the opportunity to make public appearances at book donations and to become spokesmen in public service announcements. The 76ers also built and furnished a complete Reading and Learning Center at the Universal Charter School in Philadelphia that over 450 students attend each year. In 2003, the program is creating an All-Star Reading Team so that kids can be on same team with their favorite players, reading together.

Dallas Mayor’s Summer Reading Program

The Comcast Reading Network partnered with The Dallas Mayor’s Summer Reading Program through the Dallas Public Library in 2003 to promote literacy and strengthen the reading skills of children ages 13 - 18. The Mayor’s goal is to encourage reading throughout the summer, which will increase students’ reading level during the school year. The program will reach over 20,000 children at all 23 branches of the Dallas Public Library. Comcast also developed and produced a public service announcement to bring more visibility to the program. Additionally, Comcast provided volunteers to read at the libraries and presented an awards and recognition ceremony for the participants.