Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan is stepping up to meet the literacy needs of local children. She said it’s not just part of her platform for a stronger Jacksonville, but her passion.
She launched “River City Readers” in 2024, challenging local children to read 300,000 minutes in a year. The kids smashed through that goal, passing more than a million minutes in a matter of weeks. By March 2025, participants passed 2.4 million minutes of reading.
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“Just incredible to see how excited kids were to be part of this program,” Deegan said. “I think, part of it … if I’m honest, is that we made it a competition.”
The program includes prizes and fun incentives to help encourage kids to read.
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Studies show low literacy rates are linked to issues like crime, poverty, and unemployment.
Another factor that leads to illiteracy is when children miss too much school. That prompted the city to launch the “Show Up to Shine” program. It’s an initiative that encourages good attendance while bringing together a network of partners to help keep struggling kids in school and to keep them going back.
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“It’s really very much like our River City Readers program that gives kids incentives for showing up to school,” Deegan said. “We want all of our kids to show up because when they do, they’re gonna learn. If they don’t, that’s gonna be a problem.”
And the Mayor’s literacy push hit the road, with the River City Readers Bookmobile. It was paid for through private donations from the Lucy Gooding Foundation and PNC Bank.
“I love the idea of being able to bring books to children, but also, especially in areas that, you know, where kids may not so easily be able to get to a library or perhaps, you know, they have other challenges getting close to books” Deegan said.
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