Volunteer Project

The Beaufort County Senior Leadership

Alumni Group is actively

looking to recruit volunteers for its

project in Early Childhood Education.

Our goals are twofold:

1) Tutor 4-year old pre-Kindergarten children, and

2) Send a book a month to 1,000 Beaufort County newborns through 5-year

olds via The Dolly Parton Imagination Library.

Through these efforts, we aim to reverse the 56 percent failure rate among

Beaufort County third-graders on the annual South Carolina Language Arts

standardized test and to give these children a fair chance in life. This project

might well be considered the most valuable product of BCSL thus far.

As of July 2019, we have put together a group of 31 volunteers who will be

tutoring pre-Kindergarten students at Broad River Elementary School for the

Fall 2019 school semester. Additionally, we are developing a working

relationship with organizations throughout the County to raise $99,000 for

the book delivery effort. As of July 2019, we have $8,000. The cost to send

12 books per year to a child is $33, all of which comes from donors. There is

no cost to a participating child.

More volunteers are needed for both efforts. We hope to expand the tutoring

to other schools and to raise more donations.

There is strong data to support the social return on investment in Early

Childhood Education projects. It is more effective than any other age group

project. Simply stated, they work effectively long range to reduce the school

dropout rate, teenage pregnancy, drug addiction, and many other future ills.

Projects designed to correct these problems after they develop are less

effective and more expensive to administer.

We need your help. Contact Charlie Cookson (843-521-7167) for more

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