Literacy is a basic human right, Ohio University President Roderick McDavis said as he thanked the Verizon Foundation for its $30,000-donation to an OU literacy program Friday in Baker Center.
Todd Colquitt, Verizon Ohio president, presented a check to McDavis for the Appalachia READS program, based in the OU College of Communication. The program is designed to coordinate the efforts of 702 literacy programs across 29-county Appalachian Ohio.
It goes along nicely with a lot of the other programs down here
like the Appalachian Scholars Program Colquitt said. Literacy is a prerequisite to make sure this state and this country continue to move forward.
The Verizon Foundation, the philanthropic wing of Verizon Communications, started Appalachia READS in 2002 and has now contributed $175,000 to the effort.
The rough terrain of Appalachian Ohio is a mixed blessing, Colquitt said, adding there are great grassroots literacy efforts in isolated areas, but that isolation makes it difficult for those programs to communicate with similar efforts in other areas.
The challenge is to get them moving in the same direction he said.
Appalachia READS was formed to respond to that challenge. Part of the $30,000 will be used to improve the program's Web site, www.appalachiareads.org, and the rest will be used for marketing.
The Appalachia READS program helps grassroots literacy programs balance their budgets and maximize resources, said Bruce Childs, Verizon director of external communications.
Not everybody teaches literacy the same way
Childs said. Somebody in Athens might not know what's going on over towards New (Philadelphia).
McDavis cited government statistics illustrating the national extent of illiteracy. Each year, approximately 700,000 children drop out of school unable to read, and another 700,000 complete high school unable to read, he said.
Ohio University is committed to improve the quality of life for the people of Southeast Ohio
McDavis said.
OU's Appalachian Scholars Program, slated to begin next academic year, also has received philanthropic support with a $10,000 donation from Robert D. Walter, trustee and former chairman of OU's Board of Trustees, and his wife, Margaret Walter.
Walter and his wife join President and Mrs. McDavis in their early support for the program. During an Oct. 7 press conference, McDavis pledged $10,000 to the new program and Gifford Doxsee, a professor emeritus of history, donated $10,000 for the program's Emeriti Appalachian Scholarship.
Next year, the program will provide scholarships for 10 freshmen from Ohio's 29 Appalachian counties, and the program might eventually accommodate 40 students annually. Scholarships for five students have already been secured, according to an OU Communications and Marketing press release.
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