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American Morning
Child Contest Winners, President of Reading Is Fundamental Discuss Literacy Program, Being Cut by Congress
Aired May 10, 2001 - 09:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now, a program that has made reading fun for millions of children. It is celebrating, believe it or not, its 35th anniversary. The program, familiar to many of you out there is called Reading Is Fundamental. It was established in 1966 to help prepare young children for reading and to motivate school-aged children to read. More than 4 million children participate. Last year, the program distributed more than 14 million books and other resources.
Joining us this morning are two award-winning participants in the RIF program and its president.
Let's meet the winners first. Lauren Preston is a 2001 national reader. Shantal Giron is the national poster contest winner. They are in our Washington bureau.
Dr. William Trueheart is president and CEO. He's is on Capitol Hill.
Young ladies and gentleman, good morning, and thanks for joining us here on CNN LIVE this morning."
WILLIAM TRUEHEART, PRESIDENT, RIF: Good morning.
KAGAN: Shantal, we're going to go ahead and start with you. You won the poster contest. You didn't just come up with a great poster; you beat out 143,000 other kids. That's amazing. Can you tell us about your poster? I think that we have a picture of it.
SHANTAL GIRON, 2001 NATIONAL RIF POSTER WINNER: OK.
KAGAN: There's your poster. I don't know if you can see it up on the monitor. It says "Let's Read" and "Reading Is Fundamental." It has some great bright pictures. It looks like kids holding books. What kind of ideas were you thinking of when you came up with the poster?
GIRON: I was thinking of people having fun being in the city while they're reading.
KAGAN: And you have some great colors as well.
GIRON: Yes. KAGAN: Have you been a good artist for a long time?
GIRON: Yes, I have.
KAGAN: And it looks like you're a very promising artist, indeed.
Now let's go to Lauren.
Lauren, you are the reader of the year for this program. How did you get to be that?
LAUREN PRESTON, 2001 NATIONAL RIF READER: Well, for each grade, you had to read a certain amount of hours, and I read six hours and 30 minutes. And I ended up getting picked out of our school, and then I got picked out of the United States, and I was the winner of the United States.
KAGAN: An incredible honor.
What's your favorite book?
PRESTON: I have a series of favorite books called "Wild at Heart," and it's sponsored by American Girl.
KAGAN: Oh, American Girl, I'm very familiar with those. They're very popular with girls your age. Why do you like those books?
PRESTON: Because it's all about animals and how this vet takes care of them.
KAGAN: Shantal, what's your favorite book?
GIRON: My favorite book is "The Runaway Bunny," by Paul Curtis, and I also like "Skellig," by David Almond.
KAGAN: What is it about those books that you like?
GIRON: I think they're just interesting because of the way that they live their life and how tough it is.
KAGAN: OK, ladies, we're going to have you stand by. We're going to talk to Dr. Trueheart for a little bit.
Dr. Trueheart, let's look at some of these figures again. They're so impressive. Last year, 14 million new book -- free books -- were given to 4 million kids. That is an incredible undertaking.
TRUEHEART: It is indeed, and this year, we hope to serve 5 million children, and we hope to purchase 15 million new books.
KAGAN: And yet there's a hitch: I understand that in the latest budget proposal from President Bush, RIF is in trouble.
TRUEHEART: Well, we were included, with several dozen other programs, in what they call zeroing out of the budget. It was a broad sweep of a number of programs that the administration thought could be better funded at the state level.
But we are a national program. We're not a grant program. And the people who do know us best and have been here in the federal government and know about our partnership with the federal government on Capitol Hill have taken action to reinstate us. We're very pleased about that, and we're so pleased that families, teachers, reading specialists, and people of goodwill in the communities throughout the nation in all 50 states and all of the U.S. territories where we serve have flooded the administration and Congress with over 9,000 letters and e-mails saying how important RIF is to the children in their communities. So we feel quite confident.
KAGAN: You are hopeful that that funding will be reinstated, that you will get back in the budget.
TRUEHEART: We're hopeful and very confident that anyone who looks at how effective our program has been at the grass roots level -- because we are really the largest nonpolitical grassroots organization in this county, and we are the most effective literacy program in this country at the grassroots level.
KAGAN: Good luck with that.
Before we go, I want to check in with our young ladies one more time and just look to the future.
Shantal, let's start with you: Have you started thinking about what you want to be when you grow up?
GIRON: When I grow up, I want to be a pediatrician or a surgeon, as well as an artist.
KAGAN: Great goals, indeed.
Lauren, what about you?
PRESTON: I'd like to be either a pediatrician or a vet.
KAGAN: Good luck with all those goals.
Shantal, I understand that you have another honor back at home: You have perfect attendance at your school. You were a little bit worried that you might blow the perfect attendance by coming to Washington, D.C., but your principal has granted you amnesty. So your perfect attendance record will stick.
GIRON: Yes.
KAGAN: Congratulations to both of you.
Dr. Trueheart, congratulations to you for finding these incredible young ladies with great days ahead.
TRUEHEART: They're a joy. They're a joy for us. That's what keeps us inspired.
KAGAN: Thanks for sharing with us. Good luck getting that funding back.
TRUEHEART: Thank you very much.
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