Pictured, from left, are Kosciusko Literacy Services Executive Director Cindy Cates and Teachers Credit Union Warsaw Manager Karen Mayer.

KOSCIUSKO — The TCU Foundation recently awarded Kosciusko Literacy Services $2,500 to support the Endowment Challenge 50, a 50th anniversary celebration of the Kosciusko County Community Foundation providing matching dollars to build youth-serving nonprofit agency endowments.

Karen Mayer, manager at Teachers Credit Union in Warsaw, presented Kosciusko Literacy Services’ executive director Cindy Cates with the grant. Kosciusko Literacy Services is honored to receive the support of the TCU Foundation.

The TCU Foundation was established to support the credit union’s vision of being a positive force in the communities served by TCU. The mission of the TCU Foundation is “to promote financial literacy/empowerment, education and other opportunities and causes supported by the membership, which directly benefit the communities in which TCU operates.” The TCU Foundation fulfills the mission by promoting the credit union’s philosophy of “people helping people,” advancing financial literacy and empowerment, connecting people with resources for education, employment, character building advancement, and building stronger communities.

The contributions of the TCU Foundation and other donors will forever help to place children’s books into the homes of low-income families. Children enrolled in the Read to Grow Children’s Book Club receive one book a month from birth to age five. By placing the books in the home, KLS addresses one of the main reasons children have low skills when entering school — the lack of reading material in the home. The parents sign an agreement to read regularly to their child. Reading to children at an early age helps the child to develop language and reading skills and increases the child’s ability to succeed in school. In the long term, this program will help break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy.

Read to Grow Children’s Book Club has helped children from low-income homes enter kindergarten on par with their peers and continue their academic success. The children enter kindergarten with pre-literacy skills necessary to continue learning. The pre-literacy skills are vocabulary, print motivation, phonological awareness, narrative skills, letter knowledge, and print awareness. The early development of these skills is necessary for future success in school. In fall 2018, over 49 percent of the Read to Grow Children’s Book Club graduates made the honor roll in elementary school. The support of the TCU Foundation helps to ensure the success of children in Kosciusko County.