Did you know that one of the strongest indicators of success in school and in life is whether a child can read proficiently by the end of the 3rd grade?

The end of the 3rd grade is when children are expected to move from learning to read to reading to learn.

In the State of Georgia, 6 out of 10 students Do NOT have the literacy tools that they need to be productive.

We know and understand that some of the students within our community fall into the above percentage, hence the reason that it is vitally important that we ensure that every child has everything that they need to be able to be a productive citizen.

In response to this crisis, we, as board members of the Rome Floyd County Commission on Children and Youth, have had to look at factors that affect a child's ability to read proficiently.

In our research, we found that it requires more than just the good schools that we have, more than our community's great teachers and more than loving parents.

It requires ALL of us Working Together to Get ROME Reading in order to get ALL of our 3rd graders READING to LEARN!

On Thursday, April 18, 2024 at 6 PM at the Rome City Auditorium, we invite you to join us for our 2nd Annual, "Are You Smarter Than A 3rd Grader? "Awareness Fundraiser.

Our rendition of “Are You Smarter than a 3rd Grader?” is taken from the well-known game show, “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?”, in which adult contestants test their knowledge against 5th graders to see how much they have forgotten since grade school in such subjects as language, math, geography, and social studies.

We are pitting 8 local “celebrity” contestants in a live game show against local 3rd grade students from Rome City Schools, Darlington, Georgia School for the Deaf, Floyd County Schools, Unity Christian School, Montessori School of Rome, Berry College and Elementary School and Saint Mary's Schools, to test their knowledge of all things 3rd grade!

This event is meant to be lighthearted and a very exciting way to not only engage with children in our community and furthermore support them in growing up to be productive citizens!

The RFCCCY was established in 1989 to empower our children and youth to reach their full potential through collaboration, advocacy and visibility. We do this by partnering with agencies and families to ensure that Floyd County’s children grow up to be productive citizens.

Over the past 35 years, we have been a pillar in this community providing collaborative support to our nonprofit partners, engaging with and showing the needs of the community to our industry leaders and joining forces with our local concerned citizen for the purpose of mitigating the issues that children and families in our community face.

Funds raised from this event will be used to promote our goal of Improving School Success with a Focus on Early Childhood Literacy through our Books, Barbers and Beauticians Initiative, providing new books from local and regional authors to new foster and adoptive families, donating funds to purchase books for our local little libraries in addition to Strengthening the Family Bond with an emphasis on creating Positive Childhood Experiences.

We look forward to another exciting event and can not wait to see you out on April 18, 2024 helping us #Partner2Empower!

"Are You Smarter Than A 3rd Grader?" Awareness Fundraiser