As an educational institution, the staff, faculty, and students at Ross Medical Education Center in Roosevelt Park, Michigan understand the profound importance of reading to one’s education. That’s why they continuously partner with area organizations that place the same value on education. Founded in 2005, Read Muskegon is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. The mission of Read Muskegon is “to positively impact the lives of adults through improved literacy.”
According to their website, “as the identified adult literacy council for Muskegon County, the vision is that all of our residents have access to high quality instruction that enables them to reach their full potential and positively contribute to their community.” The Roosevelt Park Campus was thrilled to be able to assist Read Muskegon by volunteering their time for their annual Children’s Christmas Party this past holiday season.
Roosevelt Park’s Campus Director Lisa Picard, Assistant Campus Director of Education Rhiannon Daszko, Clinical Instructor in the Medical Assistant program Guilianna Defilippi, and Lead Instructor in the Dental Assistant program Edk Sloan joined together and gave up their Saturday to assist in making the Read Muskegon Event fun for all those that attended. Rhiannon brought her children to the event to assist as a way of engaging them in a worthwhile experience, and her eldest son was even able to play Santa Claus to area children.
The exciting day consisted of ornament making, storytelling, coloring, cookie decorating, snowman bowling, writing letters to Santa, and then sitting on Santa’s lap. Each child was able to to tell Santa about all that they wanted for Christmas. As the children were leaving, each of them was provided with a book as a gift to encourage reading between the child and parent. It was a great community event with an impactful message of creating higher levels of literacy for both children and their parents.