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.
More Alumni Notes
James N. Long died on May 7, 2024. A three-time Badger grad, he received his PhD in Spanish literature from UW–Madison in 1971. He spent much of hi...