Schoolreaders is a national child literacy charity, and their vision is that every child should learn to read well. The charity was founded in Bedfordshire in 2013 and so celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. By recruiting volunteers and placing them into primary schools across the country to provide one-to-one reading support sessions, Schoolreaders is bringing greater literacy skills to many thousands of children every week.
The Schoolreaders team is based in Bedford, just outside the town centre in the Bedford Heights development, and its volunteers are currently supporting around 14,000 children in over 800 schools across England and Wales every single week.
Schoolreaders’ third annual Race for Reading challenge takes place between 31st March 2023 and 19th June 2023 and the charity is calling for individuals and teams to take part.
The challenge invites participants to cover as many miles as they can across 80 days, however they choose; walking, running, cycling, swimming, skating, walking the dog, playing golf and more, whilst raising sponsorship to help Schoolreaders reach more children with vital reading support sessions.
The challenge is based on the novel ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ by Jules Verne, and the aim is that all participants together will travel the 25,000 mile distance around the world to support child literacy.
Individuals and teams can set their own targets for distance and fundraising, logging miles online and seeing how they compare in the live leaderboard!
Sign up now at: https://www.raceforreading.org/
Taking part as a business/company team brings many benefits
• Organising a ‘Weekly Wellbeing Walk’ for your team - providing an important mental health break.
• Encouraging colleagues to be more active - improving physical health.
• Coming together to support a cause - while also creating some friendly competition!
• Enjoying the chance to build stronger relationships with colleagues - through shared participation.
• Generating great content for social media and PR opportunities – showcasing your commitment to giving back as a business.
• An inclusive activity that allows individuals to take part in different ways to suit their lifestyle and ability (from gentle walking or wheelchair travel to long distance running or open water swimming!)
• The opportunity to set a fundraising target - with potential for the company to support staff efforts through match-funding.
• A family friendly challenge - employees can involve their children, partners, friends.
• Simple and easy from an administrative point of view.
Just £30 provides one child with a year's one-to-one weekly reading support helping to change their life story. Imagine the difference Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce members could make by raising just £30 each…
To learn more about Schoolreaders, visit their website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The Race for Reading challenge is kindly sponsored by Times Table Rock Stars a Bedford based company providing award-winning programmes for times tables practice across several different platforms.
