SPOTLIGHT:  Project Flight

“Literacy opens a door that no one can close”    
                                            Dr. Geraldine Bard

Ready to start school in September 2003, five-year-old Aleisha Sargeant put on her best dress in preparation for the battle of a lifetime. Aleisha would soon face the daily challenge of good versus evil, education versus ignorance, and opportunities versus missed choices. For children in poverty like Aleisha, and the teacher hoping to make a difference in her life, the fight for literacy offers few second chances.

Since the establishment of reading achievement examinations, at-risk children from Buffalo and across the country have consistently performed poorly. According to federal guidelines, a significant number of the children in Buffalo live in poverty; our city’s poverty ranking is currently the third highest in the nation. It is not surprising that children such as Aleisha fall victim to an achievement gap. They are at the greatest risk for school failure. The irony for these children is that they go to schools with the most limited resources. They are often prohibited from taking their books home, due, for instance, to the high cost of textbook replacement. For children like Aleisha, who live in poverty and attend such a school, chances to be successful soon begin to dwindle.

Project FLIGHT learned about Aleisha’s situation in an email written by a teacher from her home at 5 AM:

“I am a teacher on the East Side of Buffalo. We care so much about our children, but we are having a hard time meeting the standards for many reasons. One of our biggest concerns is lack of any materials for the children to read.  Last night, one of the fourth grade teachers was nearly in tears because her children are so far behind.  How do you teach reading when there’s nothing to read?  (She does have Macmillan for the fourth grade level, but her children cannot read at this level.)  It isn’t a matter of intelligence either. They have no preparation; they’ve never been read to. We just need to take them through the process.  I told her I would talk to you.  I am more than willing to do anything I can to help her children. Just point me in the right direction.  Thanks for your time.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed on this one.”

Within 48 hours, Project FLIGHT had delivered 100 books to every single classroom in the school - not just the fourth grades - but to all grades, for a total of 12,000 books. In fact, not only has immediate help been given to this school but too many other parents, teachers, and school districts served by Project FLIGHT for the past 15 years.

Dr. Betty J. Cappella, PhD and Dr. Geraldine E. Bard, PhD, two internationally-known professors at Buffalo State College are at the heart of Project FLIGHT.  Together they recognized that the plight of these families meant that family literacy, the foundation for our educational system, was facing a crisis. As a means to give the children of disadvantaged families and communities a stronger start, they created Project FLIGHT.

Project FLIGHT, a member of the Read to Succeed Buffalo coalition, continues to work extensively with the Buffalo Public Schools to develop methods to improve student performance. While the causes of poor school performance and low literacy rates are multifaceted, the simple approach of providing books and other literacy resources, along with targeted teacher training, is making a difference and helping to raise test scores. 

Today, the non-profit organization’s “Book Bank” collects and distributes 250,000 books annually in the Western New York area. These books are provided to schools and other community organizations where there is a great need for literacy resources. The organization also works with parents, teachers and schools to tackle illiteracy. Their vision is to ensure that every child will have a book of his own and be able to read it at grade level; that each child will live in a literate environment at home and in school; and that literacy will be a pathway out of poverty.

To contact Project Flight's bookbank, call 876-0979. Donations can be sent to Project Flight, 7954 Transit Road, Williamsville, N.Y. 14221. Please make checks payable to Project Flight.