Mayor Lester Miller made a special trip Wednesday morning to visit students participating in Appleton Episcopal Ministries’ Free to Read Summer program.
He joined students for story time, reading Chicken in Space by Adam Lehrhaupt as they learned about consonant blends. The day’s lesson focused on the “sp” blend, with words like space, spin, and spun tying into the book.
“Reading opens doors for our children, and programs like this help ensure they continue learning and growing even when school is out,” said Mayor Lester Miller. “Appleton Episcopal Ministries has been an outstanding partner in supporting our young people and their families, and we’re proud to invest in programs that strengthen our community through education.”
Appleton Episcopal Ministries is a Macon Violence Prevention (MVP) partner and grant recipient. Since 2022, the organization has received a total of $75,500 in MVP grant funding to support its Free to Read programs, including the Free to Read Summer program and the Free to Read Intensive program during the school year. The Free to Read program is in its 10th year.
“This program provides a level of safety, encouragement, joy, and time,” said Appleton Episcopal Ministries Program Director Corley Peth. “For many of our students, reading is very difficult, and in a traditional classroom with 25-30 students, one teacher may not have the time to dedicate to a student who’s really struggling, even if a teacher is working really hard.”
The five-week, full-day summer program serves 36 rising first-, second-, and third-grade students from Bibb County. Its goal is to prevent the summer learning slide by helping students maintain or even improve their reading levels while school is out. The program also addresses food insecurity by providing breakfast and lunch to every student.
“Here we have small class sizes and teachers who have time to work through that processing,” said Peth. “So what that does is it makes that child feel valued, loved, and seen in another area in their life.”
This year’s theme is “Take Flight with Reading!” The program has centered around all things flight. Students have learned about how things that fly in nature have inspired humans to build things like airplanes and rockets. Students will learn about important historical figures related to space and aviation, including the Tuskegee Airmen, Ron McNair, Mae Jemison, and Katherine Johnson. The program also included a field trip to the Aviation Museum to learn about flight from real life aerospace engineers.
Appleton offers an interactive phonics-based program which builds reading skills and is tailored to the individual needs of each student. The program is data-driven, based on the science of reading, and delivered by certified teachers. The children receive more than 20 brand new books each summer, and they enjoy afternoon enrichments including art, science, gardening, folktales, games and field trips.
After the mayor finished reading, he took questions from students and talked about how reading can benefit them throughout their lives.
“The most important thing is he talked about the importance of reading to do his job. He pointed out that everybody needs to learn how to read to do your job well,” said Julie Groce, Canon Missioner for Appleton.
About the Macon Violence Prevention Program
Macon Violence Prevention is an evidence-based, multifaceted program created to address public safety in Macon-Bibb County. Supported and funded by the consolidated government, MVP is a community-wide effort that brings together elected officials, community leaders and representatives from more than 20 agencies, organizations, and departments.
The MVP program operates under the guidance of the MVP Strategic Plan, which was created in June of 2021 by community stakeholders and violent crime experts. The plan combines data and research with community feedback to identify and implement proven solutions that reduce violent crime and strengthen the community over time.
Since its inception, more than $2.5 million has been granted to local nonprofit and community organizations. From 2022 to 2024, the Macon-Bibb homicide rate dropped by 45%, and the youth homicide rate fell by 87% between 2022 and 2024.