By BROOKLYN BROWN
One Feather Reporter
CHEROKEE, N.C. – Qualla Boundary Public Library and Snowbird Community Library launched a new reading program, Hinigoliya (you and I read), on Tuesday, March 5. Hinigoliya is a reading initiative to promote early literacy for children in kindergarten to third grade within the five-county service area (Graham, Cherokee, Swain, Jackson, Haywood).
Roseanna Belt, an elder of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, is shown with her granddaughter, Nori Taylor, at the second Hinigoliya launch party on Wednesday, March 6 in Qualla Boundary Public Library. (BROOKLYN BROWN/One Feather photos)
Staff from Qualla Boundary Public Library and Snowbird Community Library held launch parties in Qualla Boundary Public Library on the evenings of March 5 and 6 with pizza and goodies including a t-shirt donning the Hinigoliya mascot, Awesome Possum (Usgwanigit Utsesdi).
The program is sponsored by the Harrah’s Cherokee Tribal Scholarship Fund. The program uses Beanstack, an online site to track and log reading. Participants can enroll in Beanstack online or visit Qualla Boundary Public Library or Snowbird Community Library to sign up. Tri-annually, the top three readers in each grade will receive a prize. The top reader of each grade will be entered into a raffle at the end of the last annual cycle for the grand prize, which is four tickets to an Atlanta Braves home game with accommodations and meals included. Multiple entries of the same participant are allowed. The minimum reading log goals for each grade are:
Kindergarten: 300 minutes
First Grade: 300 minutes
Second Grade: 500 minutes
Third Grade: 500 minutes
“Two of our primary goals are to increase kindergarten entrance and fourth grade entrance reading scores for each participant. The second goal is to promote family reading, hence the program title, “you and I read.” It is designed around the idea of reading a minimum of ten minutes per day,” said Renissa McLaughlin, Youth and Adult Education director. “A new study published in the journal, ‘Child Development’, finds that having strong reading skills as a child is a predictor for higher intelligence levels as a young adult.”
Qualla Boundary Public Library and Snowbird Community Library hold their second Hinigoliya launch party on March 6 in Qualla Boundary Public Library.
Roseanna Belt, an elder of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, attended the launch party on March 6 with her granddaughter Nori Taylor, “I have always thought reading was so essential to anybody. If you love to read, you’ll do well in school. I want to encourage my grandchildren to read, and I like programs like this that encourage reading.”
Zena Rattler, manager of Snowbird Community Library, highlighted Reading Nation Waterfall, a three-year, $1.4 million Institute of Museum and Library Services funded project to increase access to literacy and libraries for children in Indian Country. Reading Nation Waterfall has partnered with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians on Hinigoliya.
Both libraries are also collaborating on the Community Reading Challenge with the Cherokee community clubs to promote reading among the community. The libraries will serve as a drop-off location for reading logs.
To learn more about Hinigoliya or the Community Reading Challenge, follow Hinigoliya, Qualla Boundary Public Library and Snowbird Community Library on Facebook.
