Mount Vernon Kiwanis Club FUN

by Bruce Malkin

The Mount Vernon Kiwanis Club (MVKC) has been coooperating with the Fairfax County's Reading is FUNdamental (RIF) program for several years by purchasing and distributing new books to pre-kinder children in our area. The first distributions were made to the 3-5 year olds at the Head Start at the Gum Springs Center on Fordson Road, followed soon by the infant to 3 year olds at the Gum Springs Early Learning Head Start Center on Richmond Highway. This year, MVKC's RIF Program Coordinator, Betty Puscheck, expanded into the INOVA Mount Vernon Hospital Child Care Center and the Creekside Neighborhood Center on Janna Lee Avenue, all of which received book distributions in October.

In total, last month the MVKC gave away 345 books to children who can now take them home and read them with their parents, instilling a habit of reading in the home that will last a lifetime. Betty and her MVKC helpers, Jim Todd, Bob and Marilyn Valone, Barbara Callahan, Lisa Caputo, and Joanne Malkin do this three times a year, and write the children's names in the front cover of the first book they own, and the children's smiles are the best reward. To volunteer to help the Mount Vernon Kiwanis Club in this or any of its many other community service programs, please see www.mtvernonvakiwanis.org and then contact Bruce Malkin at brucemalkin1@gmail.com

Betty Puscheck, MVKC RIF Program Coordinator, helping children put their first names in their first books of their own.

Some of the pre-kinder kids at Gum Springs Head Start Program show off their new books.