Fund-A-Need Paddle Raise

Sonoma County Vintners Foundation is excited to announce that a key focus for this year’s Fund-A-Need paddle raise will benefit the critically impactful K-3 Proficiency Project which has seen tremendous results in increasing literacy in Sonoma County school children.

K-3 Proficiency Project, run by the nonprofit K-3 Innovation, is a partnership with public schools in Sonoma County working to increase reading proficiency by the end of the third grade.

According to K-3 Innovation, 59% of Sonoma County third graders read below grade level. Their data shows that children who do not learn to read are four times more likely to drop out of high school, end up in the criminal justice system, and live in poverty. This important age is when students make the leap from learning to read to reading to learn.

But there is hope for Sonoma County students with the K-3 Innovation model. The model supplements existing curriculum during a two-year committed partnership between teachers, school staff, and K-3 Innovation. In one school where the K-3 Proficiency Project has been implemented, third grade reading proficiency rose from 30% to 85% on the STAR assessment. The organization currently works with three schools, and your paddle raise will help them serve more!

“Literacy is everything,” according to Dr. Amie Carter, Sonoma County Superintendent of Schools. “If you show me a third grader who is literate and proficient, you show me a high school graduate. We need your support to expand this program to more of our schools here in Sonoma County to ensure that more young people achieve the goal of literacy.”

In addition to the K-3 Proficiency Project, the proceeds from this year’s Sonoma County Wine Celebration Fund-A-Need Paddle Raise will continue to provide impactful assistance for children’s education and literacy while also addressing new challenges our county faces.

The Fund-A-Need Paddle Raise will continue to provide impactful assistance for the county’s most pressing challenges—children’s education, literacy, and more!

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