Wyomissing, Pa. – More than 30 local students are the proud owners of brand-new bikes and helmets thanks to Customers Bank, the United Way of Berks County, and the Ready.Set.READ! program.
For the second year in a row, Customers Bank sponsored the Books for Bikes challenge, which provides a free bike and helmet to each child who attends 30 of the 40 days of the Ready.Set.READ! literacy and reading program. Students from the Oakbrook Housing neighborhood participated in the program this year, achieving a 75% completion rate. Customers Bank presented the bikes and helmets today at the Berks Community Health Center Oakbrook, at 1040 Liggett Avenue, Reading, PA.
“Education and community service are two of Customers Bank’s top priorities, and we are proud to provide bikes and helmets as a way to show young students that reading is a true achievement,” said Richard Ehst, President & COO, Customers Bank. “We offer a special thanks to Mary Jimenez of the United Way of Berks County for her work with the Ready.Set.READ! program, and to Toys R Us Wyomissing and its store manager, Brandon Romberger, for their time and effort in assembling the bikes.”
Ready.Set.Read! is an initiative managed by United Way to help foster a love of reading in children by working with schools, businesses, organizations and individuals throughout the community. It is designed to reduce summer learning loss, which describes what happens when students lose academic skills over the summer months. More than 30,000 children benefitted from Ready.Set.READ!-related programs in 2016, and more than 5,000 books were donated to community programs.
