Campaign for Grade-level Reading with Story County Reads

Pacesetter Award Finalist

In conjunction with United Way of Story County’s Young Leader’s Society, Blast Back to School Supply Drive program was nominated for the Pacesetter Award with the following story:

Activating Young Leaders in Story County

To create learning rich environments means engaging and activating the community. The partnership of United Way of Story County’s Young Leaders Society (YLS) Story County Reads, and Blast Back to School does just that. Part awareness and part volunteerism this partnership seeks to inform community members about the importance of grade-level reading while also giving them opportunities to engage in the work. 

YLS is an affinity group of United Way of Story County comprised of community members under the age of forty who donate $250 or more annually to the UWSC campaigns. YLS members work in a variety of fields, including banking, construction, management, production and more. In partnership with Story County Reads, YLS has made education and educational access its top priority. This process began slowly in 2014 and 2018 when YLS members participated in a dialogical reading training with Story County Reads partner Raising Readers in Story County. Steam has been built since 2022. The Story County Reads community lead is a YLS member and was invited to speak at a YLS board meeting. That summer YLS members were invited on a tour of Story County Reads partner sites, including collaborations between Raising Readers and Ames Public Library, the library and Iowa State Extension and Outreach, and Camp Canwita and the Ames Community School District. The fruit of that tour was a YLS campaign kickoff at Iowa State University’s Jacobson Athletic center at which the ISU head football coach, Matt Campbell, spoke on the importance of youth development and the Story County Reads community lead discussed grade level-reading and summer slide to a group of approximately sixty community members. The event doubled as a school supply drive and was what got YLS connected with Blast Back to School. This was repeated in 2023 with ISU basketball coach, T.J. Otzelberger. 

Blast Back to School is a community action team, whose fiscal agent is United Way of Story County. Each year, Blast Back to School packs and delivers over 1000 backpacks to students in need across Story County, with books distributed by Raising Readers on the day of the give-away. Blast Back to School works in coordination with Ames, Ballard, Nevada and Roland-Story School Districts. YLS members coordinated supply drives at their respective organizations, counted supplies, and volunteered to pack backpacks.  

The partnership between these different organizations, facilitated by Story County Reads, spreads awareness of the importance of grade-level reading far and wide in the community, and provides opportunities for community members to be involved in the work of the Campaign for Grade-level Reading in ways they may otherwise be unable.