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'Breakfast and Books' literacy event

Rhonda Crowder and Wayne Dailey, coordinators of Hough Reads, spoke during the breakfast about what they're doing to promote a culture of reading in the neighborhood.
Credit: Margaret Berstein
Breakfast and books last Saturday

Cleveland — A year ago, the Lexington-Bell Community Center of Cleveland launched its “Breakfast and Books” community literacy event, emceed by WKYC reporter Danielle Wiggins.

This year, Wiggins returned as master of ceremonies for the breakfast, held recently at Cuyahoga Community College’s Metro campus and attended by more than 50 guests. And over eggs and sausage, it was revealed that an idea floated at the inaugural breakfast – to launch a “Hough Reads” family literacy campaign -- has already blossomed into a reality.

At the 2018 breakfast, WKYC was recognized for its support of Lexington-Bell and for helping jumpstart the Hough Reads project, which pulls together a number of neighborhood organizations.

Every month, a different family literacy activity happens in the Hough area. Lexington-Bell Community Center hosted the most recent Hough Reads event, a visit in October from noted children’s author Lesa Cline-Ransome.

Rhonda Crowder and Wayne Dailey, coordinators of Hough Reads, spoke during the breakfast about what they’re doing to promote a culture of reading in the neighborhood.

Their activities have included unveiling a special Avengers-themed Little Free Library outside of the Hough Multipurpose Center and enlisting a group of fathers to read sports-themed stories at the Baseball Heritage Museum. They also organized a summertime literacy series for families at the Hough branch library.

Crowder and Dailey presented a special Little Free Library as a gift to Lexington-Bell Community Center Executive Director Lu Anne Peters.

Another highlight of the breakfast was the keynote speech by Felton Thomas, director of Cleveland Public Library. He spoke movingly of the opportunity that librarians have to change lives and shared his own experience. As a youth, Thomas himself sidestepped gang involvement by escaping into the library.

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