Give to the Max Day 2020 (Nov 1 -19, 2020)

This is a truly unprecedented time for The Reading Center and the families we serve.  At this point in 2020 we expected to be celebrating the end of our first full year of Orton-Gillingham training and tutoring of students in the new building. COVID shifted all our programming online – and our life-changing work continues in that format until it is safe to be back together in the facility.

Due to the impacts that the COVID crisis has had on the economy, we have seen a simultaneous downturn in charitable giving, including individual donations and foundations.  At the same time we have experienced new demand for our scholarship dollars. Last year, we provided almost $58,000 in scholarships to students and trainees. 

This year, we are on pace to grant almost $90,000 in student scholarships – and the increased need will continue as we enter 2021. We need your support to maintain this level of scholarship funding into 2021, and to prevent any slow-down in granting new scholarships to families coming to us next year. 

When our tutoring students come to us, they typically are testing in the lowest 20th percentile of readers.  Their schools have been unable to move them, and distance learning has left more students behind than ever before.  The trajectory of their learning changes when they begin our specialized instruction.  Half of our students test out of the lowest percentiles after one year, and nearly all our students make significant progress, when before they were stuck.

 A donation to The Reading Center this year will help us continue granting scholarships to our students as we end 2020 and begin the near year. Without donations, we will be forced to halt granting any new scholarships. With the increased need, we do not want to do that.  

Thanks to a $5,000 grant from Rochester Scottish Rite Children’s Foundation, your donation will be doubled!

Will you make a donation in 2020 to help The Reading Center meet the growing needs of our students? With your donation of:

$300…..we can provide a partial scholarship for a child to be tested at The Reading Center in order to put the child on a path to success

$500…..we can pay for a child to receive a scholarship for two months of tutoring so the child may reach his or her potential

$1,000…..we can pay for a training scholarship for an adult taking our Orton-Gillingham Training Institute to learn the skills to teach dyslexic students

$2,000…..we can provide a year-long scholarship for a dyslexic student in need to gain the reading skills that will make them confident and successful

Despite the challenges of this year, The Reading Center continues on our upward trajectory of serving more families and training more adults in the Orton-Gillingham approach. We are on pace to deliver a record-breaking number of 1:1 tutoring sessions this year. We continue to see our training institutes fill within hours. We are excited to see many new faces join our online outreach events this fall. 

We continue to provide guidance over the phone and supply worried parents answers through our educational testing. Through our classes and our extremely effective Orton-Gillingham tutoring we work with students of all ages to gain the skills needed to be good readers.  

Like us, you know how critical it is that children with dyslexia become confident readers.  With your support, children who would have struggled and experienced only failures are learning to read!