Alumni Start Literacy Foundation
My wife, Jeanne, and I met in my sophomore year, married in my junior year, and graduated together in 1967 with two sons. Jeanne and I were the first of three generations to be able to read before we went to school, and literacy has been a boon to all three generations. Being aware that according to a national study 30 percent of all high school graduates in America cannot read above the third-grade level, and children in the lowest 40 percent economic level have no books at home, we decided to “pay it forward.” After giving $500 to the Fort Atkinson School District the first year, able to provide over 500 books to kids in summer school, we started a 501(c)3 foundation called Liberty Through Literacy and have partnered with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Now, almost 250 children in the 53538 zip code get a book mailed to them each month from birth to age 5. We also give books to kids in summer school because of reading limitations.
