CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – (CLARKSVILLENOW) The KIwanis Club of Clarksville has donated around 3,000 books to the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System, as part of their annual Reading Rodeo literacy program. The title of the children’s book is “The One and Only Ivan,” written by Kathrine Applegate. It’s about a silverback gorilla named Ivan who grew up in a cage at a shopping mall and eventually lived in the Atlanta Zoo.
Kiwanis club members were at Kenwood Elementary School Friday morning to pass out the books to the students. Kiwanis club President Dan Black said the organization has worked with the Reading is Fundamental (RIF) as part of their literacy program for close to 30 years. Through RIF they were only able to serve around 10 percent of students in the school system. With Reading Rodeo, every third grade student in the school system will receive a copy of the book.
“We doubled our efforts for fundraising to come up with the funds, we partnered with UPS through a grant and enlarged the program so that we can serve over 3,000 students in the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System with the Reading Rodeo,” Black said.
Black added that the Reading Rodeo ties in with the Kiwanis Club of Clarksville Rodeo which is their fundraising event held each year. Along with the Kiwanis Club, UPS, and the school system, the Clarksville-Montgomery County Education foundation was also a partner in the Reading Rodeo program.
