Pi Beta Phi Celebrates Literacy

Ole Miss sorority honors Dr. Seuss’s birthday on its Fraternity Day of Service

By Christina Huck, senior journalism major, Meek School of Journalism and New Media

cfhuck@go.olemiss.edu

This past Friday, March 1st, local sorority Pi Beta Phi hosted a literacy Carnival in honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday, which is also their Fraternity Day of Service.

The Fraternity Day of Service is a Read. Lead. Achieve. initiative supporting the fraternity’s 100-year literacy vision.

The carnival was held at The United Way of Oxford-Lafayette County Boys and Girls club.

“We started doing C.A.R. at the Boys and Girls Club last year and instead of just third graders, we included students from kindergarten through third grade,” said Madison Harvey, Vice President of Philanthropy of Pi Phi, who coordinated the event.

C.A.R (Champions are Readers) is a month-long reading enrichment program. It encourages daily reading habits to improved reading levels through an easy-to-implement program. How did it work? Pi Phis met every Monday and Wednesday for two hours and read with the kids and worked through a reading workbook.

At the carnival, the kids received certificates and metals celebrating their completion of the program.

There was also food provided and several activities to choose from as well, which included: in door bounce house, a book reading station, coloring table, and face painting.

Toward the end of the carnival, there were special appearances by Ole Miss football players Bo Wallace and Denzel Nkemdiche. They talked with the kids and autographed pictures.

“The literacy carnival was a huge success, and the kids had so much fun, as well as our members,” Harvey said.