Sarafinski Makes Community Quarterback Finalist
By Laura Schaaf -- February 29, 2004
For the first time ever, PARADE Magazine and the NFL partnered to honor outstanding volunteers across the country with the Community Quarterback Award. Funded by NFL Charities, the PARADE/NFL Community Quarterback Award recognizes community and youth volunteers who demonstrate leadership, dedication and a commitment to bettering their communities.
Laura Schaaf, Reading Recovery Teacher Leader and Literacy Consultant for the Northwest Tri County Intermediate Unit nominated Dr. Dolores Sarafinski, retired Gannon English professor and Founder of Hooked on Books!. Dr. Sarafinski was selected as one of the top ten finalists for the award. The Pittsburgh Steelers donated $1,000 in her honor to Hooked on Books! The mission of Hooked on Books! is to instill knowledge and love of books in children whose circumstances may offer little opportunity to gain this knowledge and love otherwise by pairing up each child with a reading pal on a daily basis.
"I nominated Dr. Sarafinski because she makes an incredible contribution to our inner city children", said Schaaf. " She still remembers the joy of being read to by her father. She wants to bring that joy to others." Sarafinski founded Hooked on Books! in 1991 starting at St. Mary's Grade School. Betty Seigley and some fellow bridge club members along with students from Delta Kappa Gamma, served as some of the first reading pals. In 1994, Hooked on Books! started performing its magic at the Inner City Neighborhood Art House. Since then, over 2,500 readers have been reading to about 500 children each year. "This has really become her life's work and it makes a difference to the children of our community," Schaaf continued. "She organizes more than 100 reading pals each semester and 300 readers each summer. And she is always working a crowd-looking for more readers."
"Any recognition of me and Hooked on Books! is really recognition of the efforts of members of our board and the hundreds of caring readers who so generously come weekly to share their love of reading with our children, "remarked Sarafinski. "When we hear of the high poverty rate among the children we serve, our presence at the Art House affirms our belief that there is a way out of poverty. It can start with a book. As a caring person opens a book with a child, he or she can be taking the first step in changing the life of that child."
NFL Charities, created in 1973, is a non-profit organization that allows NFL clubs and players to collectively make grants to charitable and worthwhile causes on the national level. Since its inception, NFL Charities has made more than $45 million in grant commitments to more than 250 different organizations.
PARADE/NFL Community Quarterback Nomination
Ninety-million Americans lack basic literacy skills. The average middle class child has been exposed to about 1,700 hours of one-on-one reading. The average child growing up in poverty has been exposed to 25 hours of one-on-one reading. So how does one woman begin to break this cycle of illiteracy and poverty in her community? She does it from a basement office, with nothing but a work study student and the backs of scrap paper in her printer, while getting around on an electric scooter because she is unable to walk. And she does it with more than 2,500 volunteer readers.
Since January 1991 Dr. Sarafinski has been "hooking" more than 500 inner-city children on reading by providing volunteer readers from the Erie, PA area to read to these children on a one-to-one basis. Hooked on Books! is an organization of committed adults, spearheaded by Dr. Sarafinski, whose mission is to instill knowledge and love of books in children whose circumstances may offer little opportunity to gain this knowledge and love otherwise.
With 16, 714 children living in poverty in Erie County 33.2% of our children are at risk of joining the millions of illiterate Americans. Dr. Sarafinski and her army of volunteer readers combat this problem with books and dedication on a daily basis. That army consists of more than 100 college students and retirees during each school year and an average of 75 professional men and women daily for five weeks each summer. Summer readers come from 40 businesses; include eight judges, two college presidents, one Congressman, two State Legislatures, a County Executive and countless doctors, lawyers, mothers, fathers and friends.
Hooked on Books! performs its magic at The Neighborhood Art House. The intent of The Art House is to provide inner city children with free lessons in the arts. This mission fits with Hooked on Books! to help young children grow academically and socially. However, not all children who could benefit from these programs are able to get to The Art House. It is a dream of Dr. Sarafinski's to expand Hooked on Books! to other neighborhoods so that all children in the City of Erie can benefit from the one-to one reading that is at the heart of Hooked on Books!
Dr. Sarafinski's tireless efforts on behalf of our inner-city children have been recognized in dramatic ways. In May 1999, Dr. Sarafinski was recognized by the Points of Light Foundation. "Points of Light are the Soul of America," said President George W. Bush. "They are ordinary people who reach beyond themselves to the lives of those in need, bringing hope and opportunity." In April 1990 Dr. Sarafinski was presented Distinguished Faculty Award from Gannon University. She was a Woman of the Year Finalist in 1998 and the American Association of University Women-Erie branch, named her their Woman of the Year in 2001. The Mercy Center for Woman named her one of 2002's "Dynamic Dozen" for her notable achievements on behalf of inner city children.
You know you have something when a child, who went through the program and now attends the Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy, comes back as a reader. That is making an impact on a life. That is breaking the cycle of illiteracy. And that is what books and volunteers and one woman can do to combat poverty in her community. I urge you to consider Dr. Sarafinski, retired English professor at Gannon University and founder of Hooked on Books! as a Parade/NFL Community Quarterback. As then First Lady of Pennsylvania, Michelle Ridge said in August 1999 while honoring Dr. Sarafinski, "By helping children, by getting them hooked on books, you are helping families... We know that children's literacy levels are strongly tied to the literacy levels of their parents. You are going to touch the generation that comes after each child you read to." Help Dr. Sarafinski continue her work while impacting generations to come in Erie Pennsylvania.