Books for Bikes

Books for Bikes is an integral part of the Oakbrook Summer Reading Program, a partnership between Ready.Set.READ!, the Berks Community Health Center, Customers Bank, the Reading School District and the Reading Housing Authority (RHA), designed to provide literacy activities to children in the Oakbrook Housing neighborhood in an effort to reduce summer learning loss. The program is offered from June through mid-August to children, ages 2 - 12, in the identified area. This program is designed to meet the needs of low-income children by engaging them in literacy related activities on a daily basis around the neighborhood's Summer Food Service Program, which is supported by the RHA and Reading School District. Literacy activities may include reading books, writing stories, vocabulary building, word recognition, and learning games. Varied community organizations also partner with the program to deliver fun and engaging activities. In 2018, these partners included The Reading Public Library, which provided their mobile technology van on site weekly; Building 7 Yoga, which incorporated "reading yoga"; and Barrio Alegria, which featured artistic performances during the summer program to compliment the literacy activities. Approximately 100 children participate. Successful participants - children participating in at least 75% of the program days - earn a bike and helmet, courtesy of Customers Bank.

To learn more, contact Mary Jimenez at maryj@uwberks.org.