At the end of 2019, Black Hills Reads, an initiative under the United Way of the Black Hills gave out several $1,000 “innovative” grants to Black Hills organizations. The organizations will be using the money in an innovative way to reach the goal of ensuring children are proficient readers by the end of third grade.
This $1,000 grant goes to the Bethesda Lutheran School of Hot Springs.
They plan to implement a summer reading program that will specifically target children Kindergarten through 2nd Grade. They have hopes that this program will help students become better prepared to enter kindergarten and give them a kick start to reading endeavors before entering school.
Since receiving the funds, Bethesda learned about the Read Across SD challenge and they have chosen to not only participate, but to host a COMMUNITY WIDE Race to Read event and will be celebrating on March 2nd!