FRED Night at Forest Lake

Here’s a shout-out to the members at Forest Lake Elementary in the North Central Region. MRC members teamed up, yet again, with Project READ to host a FRED night at Forest Lake Elementary. Project READ is the organization responsible for the Bright Red Bookshelves in Grand Rapids. They also run the Fathers Reading Every Day, or FRED program.

Obviously, FRED is intended to encourage fathers to read with their children. Project READ mentions that these programs promote fathers reading with their kids, which improves the fathers' involvement in their children’s education and the level of satisfaction with the father/child relationship.

This particular event went incredibly well. 78 dads and 97 kids participated, making it the largest of its kind in Itasca County. The members, dads, and kids had pizza and story time with a tall tale from Paul Bunyan, and the kids got two free books from the Minnesota Humanities Group. It sounds like a great night – I want to go to the next one!

Teresa Greniger, Arlene Feltus, Jenessa Barker, Cathy Seely, and Kari Gjerde all helped staff the event. Teresa Greniger also planned a FRED Event at Cohasset Elementary School, and Patricia Bender planned a FRED Event at Northome. Great job to all of them - it looks like FRED is a huge success.