Soroptimist International of Calistoga (SIC) Read Aloud Partners Program (RAPP)

In the Calistoga community, RAPP is one of our Club’s most recognized projects. When
community people are approached to read in a Calistoga Elementary classroom for the annual
Read Across America Day each March, the usual answer is “Of course. What day and time?”
We have a community of adults who believe that reading is for pleasure opening the world to
young minds. It also helps promote reading for our students for their future academic
success. For our TK-1st graders we provide bilingual Spanish/English books so parents can
read to them in either language.

SIC has sponsored this project since 2010 to bring community adults into classrooms weekly
to read engaging, fun books to students. Three times a year these Readers distribute book
gifts to every students in the school. The importance of building “home libraries” has been
documented most recently by Scholastic’s "Research and Validation for Home Libraries”
which states “Access to Home Libraries is unequivocally linked to student achievement and to
lifelong success.”

Our team of 22 RAPPers includes SIC members and individuals and several have been in the
program for over 10 years. The $5,000 budget provides 1,250 books annually with an average
cost of $4/book. Raising donations for RAPP is relatively easy as all donations go to book
purchases - a tangible vision for donors with a wide community impact.

For more information about RAPP program, please email: rapp@sicalistoga.org