One program that we are especially proud of and that truly exemplifies many of the goals of the Campus Assessment is our Reading Festival. The Festival, now a campus tradition, was developed just three years ago as part of our Community Service Program and was specifically designed to meet a real need in the growing Franklin Community. The Festival takes place during public school vacation week and brings children from the ages of 3-8 to campus for a fun-filled literacy based event. Each Reading Festival is a bit different so those children that participate can do so each vacation and experience something different. Participants have enjoyed story hours, puppet shows, photos with characters from children s books, arts & crafts, creative movement sessions, dance presentations by “”Project Concern”", snacks and prizes. Each Festival has a theme and everything is tied to the theme. All children that attend the Reading Festival leave the program with an age appropriate book, bookmark, pencils, erasers, etc. Since we know that family members are critical to their children s development, we have also sponsored seminars for them on topics such as raising readers. The Reading Festival is free and each program is capped at 350 children. We have now hosted six programs and they have all been filled to capacity with a waiting list!

What is so special about this program is that, although it is organized by a college staff member, it is a true community effort. Over the years, the program has been supported by the Franklin Community Center, the local elementary schools, large corporations with offices in Franklin including Putnam Investments and Garelik Farms, Franklin residents, local business owners and Dean College faculty, staff and students. These community members have given gifts in kind, grants, and offered discounts on items we have needed to purchase. Also, many have volunteered their time the day of the event. The leadership of the College has encouraged all members to participate and we have had a wonderful response. Faculty, staff and students have volunteered to serve as storytellers, arts & crafts group leaders, check-in assistants, and snack and prize distributors. In addition, some members of the Dean community have engaged groups of students to participate. For example, one year a faculty member and her entire Children s Literature class worked on the story hours. Another year, the entire Men s Basketball team volunteered their time, and members of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society did fundraising to cover the cost of providing each student with a book to take home. All of our Community Service Scholarship Students also give between 5 15 hours of their time to planning and implementing these programs.

We advertise the programs through notices that are sent home with students through the elementary schools and through press releases in the local papers. We have received a great deal of positive press coverage from these events and the Franklin community now relies on the College to provide these types of reading programs for the Franklin youth. In addition, we receive many letters of thanks from Franklin families that have participated in the program.