Madison Reading Project director Rowan Childs on Max Ink Radio

Well, Terry, yes, if pages were burgers, the Madison reading project would would have beaten

McDonald's hands down after announcing they'd given away over one half million books over

the last decade on a mission to help kids in low income neighborhoods build literacy skills.

Here in the studio to tell us all about the amazing growth of the Madison reading project,

the Dolly Parton Imagination Program, and the new bus launch in May is director and founder

Rowan Childs. Rowan, welcome to Maxi Grader.

Welcome. Thank you so much. That was a great introduction.

Oh my gosh. In fact, I was teasing Rocker. I said, I have to ask how many books? Well,

there it is. There you go. We just surpassed the half a million books.

That is incredible. Okay. So Rowan, before we get going about the Madison reading project,

you've done so many different things. So tell us a little bit about you and, you know, kind of

what is the journey back to get where you are here with the reading project. So I've had, I

guess, so many twists and turns lived in a couple different places. Always had books, though,

as sort of like my cherished belongings and a comfort. And I've had a variety of different jobs

along the way as I started the nonprofit and finally full time, which is awesome. And love what

we're doing. Our team is so passionate about helping kids and educators and families with

literacy resources. So it's definitely been a journey. Well, what is what is your background?

Who is wrong? Who is wrong? I mean, right? You know, with that English and a degree.

Yeah, I was wondering, you know, just a little touch of the access. Yeah, yeah, so not

born in America's. You may be able to hear. So I grew up in Europe, my mom and dad,

a South African and we're Tanzanian. Who knew? And now I live in America. So on any given day,

my accent can be all over the place. So sometimes it sounds more Midwest. I lived in New York City.

So sometimes it sounds more New York or just like bits and pieces from everywhere.

And what brought you to America? My dad's job. And then when I lived in New York City,

I met a man from Wisconsin. So moved to Wisconsin, which was a slight change from New York City.

Oh, yeah, just a smudge. Yeah, we're glad you stayed though. But I love living here. Good.

Yeah, we're so lucky to have you. And because this is a music show, I do have to ask you,

what's your favorite songs do you have any? Do you have a music background?

Well, I played piano as a child, but I argued with the classical piano teacher because I wanted

to play jazz. But I do love all kinds of different music. Probably anything from like Leon

Bridges, but I love like Victoria Monet, or I was just listening to Eta James. So kind of all over

the place. That's good though. Yeah, it kind of fits whatever kind of mood you might be in.

Exactly. Yeah, we like that. I could be kind of moody. So I've never seen that, but I'm not

going to say it doesn't happen. Moody and I have a variety of moods. Absolutely. It doesn't have

to be bad moody. No, it matches the accent and the music. And yeah. Okay, so now we can talk about

the reading project. I love this so much. The Madison reading project. How do you get inspired

and how did you know that there was a need for founding this kind of organization? No, it's 10

years old already. I know. Oh, wow. Time flies when you're having fun. So initially I was helping

my own son kind of was surprised. I thought I did all the right things. We had books at home,

read to him, and his teacher said he was behind in first grade. And I was like, how is that even,

you know, how is that possible? He said, I don't like the books at school. So try to figure out

with him. It took a couple months of like, what do you like to read? That counts as reading,

even though it's not the school assigned things. Trying to find a variety of different resources.

And then it just bothered me because I thought if you're in first grade and you're behind in

reading, then what happens? You're just always behind in reading and then your grades, you don't

comprehend anything else. By the time you're in third grade, if you're just always behind,

then what happens? Then what happens? Can you even graduate? What kind of job do you, you know,

so it's just it bothered me and I looked into other volunteer opportunities and didn't quite see

what I was thinking of, but also I'd never started anything like that. So I took about a year to

try and figure it out and then found an amazing partner at Salvation Army to do that very first

pilot program. And then the kids just really sparked so many other things, sort of like, no,

we really do like to read, but when they're exciting books and engaging books and they're not

worn in tattooed books, shockingly, right? Yes. And that just encouraged me to keep going.

And who knew 10 years would go by and we'd get way more sophisticated at what we're doing and

the community really also cares about what we're doing, which is awesome. It's huge. I find it so

difficult. And I know it's real because we've talked about this before that there are kids that

don't even have one of their own book. Yeah. And that just kind of breaks my heart because I

think about the bookshelf I had as a kid. And a lot of those got passed to my brother who passed

then to the next brother. They're still lingering around my mom's house, which is really, really

cool. And I guess this is where you also found not only were kids maybe having some struggles

with reading, but then you found they didn't have books to read. I mean, it also goes back to like

where you're living, you know, your caretakers, your parents, grandparents, whomever, right?

Having just books and materials, magazines, newspapers at home, those are so few now compared to

back in the day. You know, you don't have a TV guide in a newspaper coming weekly.

So just this is less material. So like trying to find the best way to engage kids is with like fun

awesome books. You want to have like the we want to have the best books available for kids and

provide a really fun engaging experience so that they just think it's so fun. They get to pick out

the book that they want. There's awesome selections. And then they just sit down and read it,

which we see happening. So it's just really fulfilling like knowing that that's working.

And then just try and find a variety of ways to do that. But our team is just like so passionate

about trying to find like those best books. So as a child, what was your favorite book?

So my mom often read A.A. Mill and like Winnie the Pooh to us or anything by that author or role

doll, very English role doll, all of those like James and the giant peach, the witch.

The challenge and the chocolate fair. There you go. All of those books were definitely like

read to me and I read as a child. So those are definitely like some of my favorite books.

And it was very funny rereading them like to my kids and realizing they're pretty actually

pretty saucy and naughty. You're like, oh, wow, that's pretty, you know, like I might have to

tweak that a little bit. But those were definitely like some of those core books that were read to me

that I still like just love or like, you know, like squirrel nutkin, beer tricks pata, you know,

like all of those things are English. You know what did it for me? Oh, my fourth grade teacher

read to us over like it was like a month or something, you know, read a little bit of the book every

day, the Hobbit. And you know, and now I've read the Hobbit probably five times and the word of

the ring is probably five times and and do and you know, go on and on and on and 110 Star Wars books.

Yeah. For us, it was the summer reading programs at the library. And I remember my mom would come

home with stacks of books. And oh, I just love that. Of course, you got a prize if you finished

the summer. The one thing I do, like when I talk to, you know, like anyone out in public or donors,

volunteers to say, what was your favorite book? So many people know, like the childhood book

that inspired them or they're like, this was my favorite one. So I love that you guys both just

mentioned that. Oh, so great. I am really interested in Dolly Parton. Now we know that she's been

involved in reading programs because her own dad couldn't read. So tell us about this, though,

and how you end up participating in this. Yeah. So she runs her now international program.

So we participated in that. We run that for the county of Dane. And so any child under the HFI

living in Dane County, you can register them. It's super easy via our website. And really,

you get a free book delivered to your home every single month when you do sign up. So it's amazing.

We're sending out about 12,000 free books per month out currently. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

It's pretty amazing. And you know, obviously kids graduate out. So you can sign them up as soon as

they're one day old. So that's we've been running that now for two years. And so just hope to

continue to do that. So there's a lot of outreach that goes on just so that awareness and working

now with the hospitals to try and get as many newborn signed up. So they get to take advantage of

that all year for those five years. Brilliant. We're kind of running out of time here. But I'd

wanted to hear a little bit about the new bus that's coming. Thank you. Before you go. So we have

book bus number one currently. It's about to turn five years old. It's amazing. It's a free book

bus. We give books out. Kids get to keep them. Yes. And so that's program has gone so well in

a stone pack full. We figured we would get another one. So bus number two arrives May 18th. That's

when our launch will be at the coal center. And it's all accessible. It's larger than our current

one. And we're just so excited. We'll have two buses on the road. We'll keep the original bus.

And so that way we're just really hoping to be able to branch out the bus. We get so many requests

for the bus to come to where kids are. Yeah. And then you have this other event that I want to

ask you about really quick. Yeah. I love this. Ready to wear. And that's on June 12th.

This is the coolest event rocker. I am not kidding you. Oh my gosh. Tell us real quick about that.

It's a paper fashion show. So both of you can compete in paper on the runway.

Last year we had 21 teams start practicing your catwalk. And it's so fun. So people get to create

something that maybe is reflective of their company, their nonprofit, just what they love as art.

And you're competing with your fellow teammates. Last year we had nearly 500 people at the

Sylvie in attendance, celebrity judges, and then everybody gets to vote. So it's kind of like

a little bit like a reality TV show project runway. But it's so fun. And it all goes towards

fundraising towards our nonprofit. And again, books. It's made out of paper. Yeah. And it all ties

together. You can read it. Well, yeah. Some of them you can. Yeah.

Rowan, thank you so much for coming in to tell your story. How do we find more information

on the Madison reading project? Yeah, our website is probably the best place. Madison

readingproject.com. It's got ways to volunteer. Sign up for Deli Parton's imagination program,

the events coming up. You want to know more about how to book, you know, donate books, get books.

That's where you need to go. You know, it's so interesting. We're talking about music,

obviously, with the show and reading. And I think I've always heard those are two super important

things for kids. If they can read and music can do so many, you know, opening of doors.

And what a great way for us to be together. Exactly. Exactly. It's all good for your brain.

It is. It is no matter your age. Thank you, Rowan. Thank you both. So terrific.

Thanks so much for coming in. How about some Mackenzie Moore haunted on Maxine Gradio.