Letter to the Editor: Help The Children’s Movement on Give Miami Day

Thursday is the best day to help a cause. It’s The Miami Foundation’s annual Give Miami Day — and The Children’s Movement’s most important fundraising moment of the year. Every contribution from $25 to $10,000 gets a partial match.

We will build upon significant progress this year. The Children’s Movement saw the largest funding increase — 13% — in the history of Florida’s Pre-K program, serving more than 150,000 4- and 5-year-old children annually. Meanwhile, increased statewide rates for subsidized child care meant higher early learning teacher pay.

We visited 15 Florida regions to meet with parents and early learning educators. That will lead to next year’s agenda. And we hosted a statewide summit last month with more than 700 participants.

We met with dozens of legislative candidates to brief them on our issues.

We recruited business champions for “school readiness,” representing more than 20,000 employees. Those employers and others will receive “best practice” wisdom on how company policies such as parental leave and health benefits can give children a head start on success.

We led a Reading Pals program within 15 communities with volunteers who spent more than 2,000 hours helping children learn to read, and we distributed more than 25,000 books for children to take home.

There is significant momentum but much more to do on behalf of the children and the future of Florida.

Miami Herald readers can add to that momentum by donating to The Children’s Movement by following this link.

David Lawrence, Jr.,

founder, board chair,

The Children’s Movement of Florida,

Miami