Helping Readers Reach Their Potential

This year’s return to school has to be the most difficult in memory. But Gulf Coast Community Foundation donors continue to provide stability, continuity, and resilience where our students need it most.

Several donors recently came together to fund special reading kits for elementary schools across the Sarasota County School District. Part of the Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI) system, the kits include engaging, specially written books and fast-paced lessons to help struggling readers achieve grade-level expectations. Gulf Coast donors expanded and upgraded Leveled Literacy libraries at schools that needed more materials and introduced them to others that didn’t have the system yet.

Changing Lives

As a supplementary, small-group intervention, Leveled Literacy enhances and leverages investments in Reading Recovery, the successful initiative Gulf Coast donors helped introduce to our school district five years ago. 

“The high-quality texts and variety of literature from the LLI kits paired with the incredible professional development from Reading Recovery has provided the opportunity for struggling learners to transform into passionate readers,” observes Lakeview Elementary teacher Allison Lee.

“My students who have received Reading Recovery have made tremendous growth, and the other students who receive small-group instruction are so excited to bring home their LLI books to their parents,” adds Venice Elementary teacher Jenn Brusger. “It is great to see their eyes light up with pride when they read their books. This surely has changed their lives.”
 

"Her Life's Work and Passion"

Gulf Coast donors Bob and Lin Williams put up the matching grant from their fund at Gulf Coast that inspired others to co-invest in the project. Stalwart Reading Recovery supporters Judy Cahn and Keith D. Monda were among those who helped meet the challenge.

Several Reading Recovery teachers made donations in memory of Synda Buhacevich, a longtime and much-admired Reading Recovery teacher who recently passed away. Before coming to Sarasota, Synda was a respected Reading Recovery Teacher Leader in Columbus, Ohio, and then internationally for the U.S. Department of Defense school system.

Reading Recovery was her life’s work and passion, according to her husband John, and Synda's involvement here during the last two years of her life meant so much to her. The fact that she had also served as a Leveled Literacy trainer earlier in her career only made these memorial gifts even more meaningful.

“Synda loved teachers and teaching children to read,” said Reading Recovery Teacher Leader Rachel Chappell. “She loved what Reading Recovery stands for. We will work together as a team to find a way to truly honor her work with Reading Recovery through the years.”

Testimonials like the one below suggest they’ve already gone a long way in fulfilling that intention:

“I have been so pleased with the instruction my grandson has received over the past two years. He seems excited about reading, which used to make him cry. We especially love the new reading program [Leveled Literacy], where he gets to bring home a book every night that he is able to read to us. He is so proud. Thank you for giving him the opportunities that I did not have as a child!”