Jumpstart’s Read for the Record 2009 Campaign

Every year, Jumpstart’s Read for the Record campaign reaches more children and adults worldwide, and 2009 was no exception. Want to know what happened on October 8? Here are the fast facts:

1 In 2009, more than two million people showed their support for early literacy by reading a classic book.
For the fourth year in a row, Pearson proudly presented Jumpstart’s Read for the Record. On October 8, 2009, more than two million people around the world joined our annual one-day reading celebration – four times as many participants as in 2008. This time, record-breakers everywhere read the beloved classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle. Together, we raised awareness about the importance of reading with young children. We also raised funds to support Jumpstart’s year-round work with preschool children in low-income communities.

2 We did our homework and found we’ve got to work together to spread the word. In conjunction with the 2009 Read for the Record campaign, we commissioned the first “Pearson Foundation Early Childhood Education Perception” poll, which explored Americans’ perceptions surrounding the reading inequality gap that exists between children in low-income homes and their more affluent peers. We found that far too few Americans understand how essential early childhood literacy skills are to a life of sustained learning and success. In fact, of the Americans polled:

• Eighteen percent understand that a child is less likely to succeed in school if he or she is not read to before kindergarten.
• Seventy-three percent wrongly believe that if children enter kindergarten unprepared, they will catch up in elementary school.
• Fifty-three percent are unaware that nearly one-half of children from low-income communities start first grade up to two years behind their peers.

One thing we learned as a result: to give every child an equal chance to succeed, we need to spread the word. That’s why we worked to ensure that 2009’s Read for the Record celebrations would be bigger, more far-reaching, and more successful than ever.

3 We shared more than 275,000 copies of the children’s classic at the heart of the 2009 campaign. The book at the heart of 2009’s Read for the Record campaign has touched millions of young readers since its debut forty years ago. Thanks to the Penguin Group, a special Campaign Edition of Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillarwas created just for Jumpstart’s Read for the Record. This special edition provides important reading tips for parents; includes introductions by Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira of NBC’s TODAY show; and features special forewords for parents contributed by musician, actor, and rapper LL Cool J and actress Mary-Louise Parker. The Pearson Foundation donated more than 275,000 of these special Campaign Editions to young people and their teachers in conjunction with the 2009 campaign.

4 We welcomed important new campaign partners. In the annual campaigns, more than 1,500 Pearson people from more than fifty Pearson office locations show their support for early literacy by helping to set a new world record for the largest single-day shared reading event. In 2009, campaign partners, including American Eagle Outfitters, Penguin, and Sodexo, welcomed Wal-Mart as the campaign’s new Official Retail Sponsor. In support of the campaign, Wal-Mart held Read for the Record celebrations in its U.S. stores on October 8. Just as important: the Campaign Edition of The Very Hungry Caterpillar was available at each of Wal-Mart’s 3,500 U.S. locations. All net proceeds from the sales of these books went directly to support Jumpstart’s work year-round.

5 The national kick-off celebration began on NBC’s TODAY show. A tradition continues. Again in 2009, Jumpstart’s Read for the Record started on NBC’s TODAY show. On the morning of October 8, millions of viewers learned about the importance of early childhood literacy and were invited to take part in their own local reading events. The 2009 campaign’s celebrity spokesperson, Mary-Louise Parker, joined Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira to help spread the word. And among the list of guest celebrity readers: author Eric Carle himself made a special appearance to share his classic story.

6 When the national kick-off concluded, the local celebrations began. In New York City, the celebration moved from Rockefeller Plaza – where the TODAY show is based – to the New York Public Library, where the Pearson Foundation and Jumpstart hosted a citywide kick-off celebration. We marched down Fifth Avenue to get this New York City kick-off event started, and offered similar invitation-only reading events in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Again in 2009, we read at Washington Nationals ballpark in Washington, D.C. There, together with the USO, we helped to set a new world record with children and families of U.S. service people who are stationed overseas. In each city, the kick-off celebrations were followed by hundreds of local reading events, many of which involved our own Pearson people and businesses.

7 At Pearson, we take Read for the Record personally. In 2009, for the first time, we engaged more than two million registered readers as part of Jumpstart’s Read for the Record campaign. At Pearson, we did our part: We worked all year to engage leaders from hundreds of school districts nationwide. We organized statewide reading events, brought governors, mayors, and city officials together from Boston to Los Angeles, and took steps to involve more public and school libraries than ever before. And, we extended our partnership with the USO and with the nonprofit United Through Reading organization so that service people and their families could take part in Jumpstart’s Read for the Record campaign. In communities across the United States, more than 1,500 Pearson people from more than fifty Pearson offices helped to set a new world record in partnership with local schools, universities, libraries, hospitals, and community organizations. In many locations, they extended the local reading celebrations by offering participating children and families the chance to create their own personalized ABC reading book – a service based on the Pearson Foundation’s own Family Book Nights literacy program. Find out about events organized by Pearson people in your region.

8 We also engaged record-breakers overseas. Again in 2009, we extended our partnership with the USO and with the nonprofit organization United Through Reading so that service people and their families could take part in Jumpstart’s Read for the Record campaign. In addition to organizing the invitation-only celebration for USO families at Washington Nationals stadium, we donated more than 35,000 books to those great organizations so that USO families in bases across the United States and around the world could take part. Thanks to United Through Reading, service people were able to make recordings of their readings from military deployments all over the world to share with their children back home. We’re just as pleased that Pearson people and businesses did more than ever to extend Read for the Record to Latin America. Again in 2009, we organized reading events and shared books from Mexico to Chile and Argentina, and this year the Pearson Foundation also provided copies of the Spanish-language book Un regalo para Kiko to enhance the Read for the Record experience. Pearson people and businesses in England, India, South Africa, and scores of other locations also took part.

9 We brought together both parties on Capitol Hill.
On October 8, 2009, for the first time Jumpstart’s Read for the Record came to Capitol Hill. Following a proclamation declaring the day national Jumpstart’s Read for the Record Day, senators and congresspeople gathered to show their support for the cause of early literacy. These members of Congress joined the Pearson Foundation, Jumpstart and preschool children from Washington, D.C., at the Capitol Visitor Center: Senator Mark Begich (D-AK); Senator Bob Casey (D-PA); Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA); Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI); Senator Ron Wyden (DOR); Rep. Timothy Bishop (D NY-1); Rep. Joe Courtney (D CT-2); Rep. Donna Edwards (D MD-4); Rep. Bob Etheridge (D NC-2); Rep. Mazie Hirono (D HI-2); Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D RI-1); Rep. Tom Latham (R IA-4); Rep. Betsy Markey (D CO-4); Rep. Betty McCollum (D MN-4); Rep. Jared Polis (D CO-2); Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D CA-47); Rep. John Shimkus (R IL-19); and Rep. Tim Walz (D MN-1).

10 Reading is important all year long! Every day is a good day to read with a child in your life. Learn more at www.readfortherecord.org.