Stafford Donates Books to the St. Charles Childrens Learning Center
Amanda Stafford, secretary of The Stafford Foundation, participated in the College of Southern Marylands Celebrity Reader program at the St. Charles Childrens Learning Center on the La Plata Campus. CSMs Celebrity Reader program features readers throughout the year to help promote a love of reading with its youngest students.
Stafford read several books to the children, and donated two of books to the CLCs permanent collection. She read Jesse Bear, What will You Wear by Nancy White Carlstrom; I Can Read with My Eyes Shut, by Dr. Seuss; and the two donated books, And Heres to You, by David Elliot and Oliver, by Syd Hoff.
An avid reader with her own grandchildren, Stafford discussed the importance of reading to children at an early age. This is the age when children develop a love of reading, which then translates to a love of learning, she said. When you read to children and spend time with children you make an investment in them and their future and it is so important to have programs such as this, to build those educational foundations.
Stafford and her husband Earl W. Stafford first gained national recognition when The Stafford Foundation sponsored the Peoples Inaugural Project in celebration of President Barack Obamas inauguration. The Foundation paid $2 million to cover all costs including the J.W. Marriotts Build Your Own Ball package which included 300 rooms, four suites and a roof-top view of the parade under a heated tent. The Stafford Foundation reached out to non-profit organizations across the country and invited more than 400 people including wounded veterans, the disadvantaged, underprivileged children, the terminally ill, the chronically unemployed, residents from battered women shelters and individuals from all walks of life to participate in the celebration. For information about The Stafford Foundation and its current works, visit www.thestaffordfoundation.org.
The St. Charles Childrens Learning Center at CSM features Celebrity Readers throughout the year and provides quality childcare and a safe learning environment for the children of students, faculty, staff and community. For information, visit http://www.csmd.edu/clc/.