Sullivan Literacy Center Partners with Moody for Pen Pal Project
Press release from the issuing company
Tuesday, January 14th, 2014
A partnership between Moody Air Force Base and the Valdosta State University Ruby R. Sullivan Literacy Center is helping area boys and girls to become better readers and writers.
Expanding the Sullivan Literacy Center’s Dear Blazer Buddy Program, 31 children were partnered with airmen stationed at Moody Air Force Base for a special pen pal initiative during the summer. A few of those partnerships continue today.
Dr. Gina M. Doepker, literacy center director, said VSU’s Dear Blazer Buddy Program was developed “to give the children authentic reading and writing experiences that would be meaningful, relevant, and purposeful. Many of the children at the Sullivan Literacy Center are struggling, reluctant readers and struggling, reluctant writers as well. The pen pal program is a … way to get them excited about writing.”
Typically, during fall and spring semesters, Dear Blazer Buddy Program participants are paired with a VSU student, and throughout the semester, the two write fun and motivating letters to each other. The Moody Air Force Base airmen were invited to join the effort over the summer and have expressed an interest in remaining active in the program throughout the school year.
“A few of the children have continued with the correspondence with their Moody Air Force Base pen pal,” Doepker, an associate professor in the James L. and Dorothy H. Dewar College of Education and Human Services, explained, adding that it can be “difficult to maintain the correspondence on both ends given that we are only with the children for 10 weeks during fall and spring semesters and six weeks during the summer semester. The Moody men and women also have schedules that take them out of the country for several months.”
Moody Air Force Base families are also part of the Ruby R. Sullivan Literacy Center’s Multidisciplinary Child Advocacy Team, or M-CAT. Through this initiative, divisions, colleges, and departments at VSU, as well as community organizations like Moody, provide identified services for center children and families, such as comprehensive assessments, health screenings, family support and therapy, content area tutoring, shadowing opportunities, adult literacy, and much more.
“I am so blessed that … (the Moody airmen) are actively involved with the Sullivan Literacy Center,” Doepker said.
Contact Dr. Gina M. Doepker at [email protected], (229) 333-5625, or (229) 333-5645 for more information.
