Kathy Finnerty

Finnerty's "Project GIVE" focuses on promoting literacy in the rural community of Harveys Lake, Pennsylvania. Based on studies that indicate the average high school student reads only 3.6 minutes a day, the project aims to establish good reading habits in not only the very young, but in everyone in the community. Older students mentor elementary students, who read to pre-schoolers; "book nooks" are established in local health clinics; children create books to take to nursing homes. Students develop their own reading skills and reach out to help improve literacy among others in their community.