Impact Summer Reading: Student honors Ralph Ketner
Published 12:00 am Sunday, May 31, 2015
Josh Lewis came to the Salisbury Post to deliver his donation to the Impact Summer Reading Fund on Friday.
He wanted to honor Food Lion co-founder Ralph Ketner with a $50 gift.
The son of Catawba College President Brian Lewis and wife Laura, Josh recently graduated from Cannon School in Concord. He will enter the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va., this fall.
He will head to China on Wednesday for a two-week trip with a group from Cannon, but first he wanted to help the summer reading program.
“I’ve been enjoying a good book for as long as I can remember,” Josh says. “I really want others to find the many adventures that are between book covers.”
He passed along a couple of recommendations: C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia” and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
Ketner has been a generous supporter of Catawba and many worthy causes around Salisbury. “He has done so much to help our community,” Josh says.
Ketner has been generous to the reading fund, too, donating $15,000 toward its $76,000 goal.
The Impact Summer Reading Fund’s aim is to make sure every rising 6th- through 12th-grader in the Rowan-Salisbury Schools goes home with a book to own and read over the summer. Schools will hold related activities for the students.
The effort is aimed at decreasing summer learning loss, which particularly impacts students from disadvantaged homes, where reading materials can be scarce.
As the schools’ literacy coach Crystal Merck has said, access is key. “We can fill the gaps.”
Here are today’s donations.
Previous total … $25,927.22
In honor of Ralph Ketner, from Josh Lewis … $50
In memory of two of our favorite teachers, Mr. Calvin Kesler, eighth grade, Rockwell Elementary and Erwin Middle, and Mrs. Ruth Hodge, first grade, Rockwell Elementary, from Alan and Joy King … $100
For Knox School, in honor of reading teachers past and present, especially Lana Downey and Patricia Turner, from Barbara Ann Brewer … $200
For the future of Rowan County, from Peggy Wilson … $200
Dale and Margaret Basinger … $200
J.F. Hurley Foundation … $1,000
Today’s total … $27,577.22
How to give
• By check, made out to the Rowan-Salisbury School System, with “Impact Summer Reading” in the memo line. Also indicate whether you want the funds to go to a particular school. Tributes are welcome. Please mail to:
Rowan-Salisbury Schools
Attn: Tara Trexler
P.O. Box 2349
Salisbury, NC 28145-2349
Checks may also be dropped off at one of the school administrative sites located at 314 N. Ellis St, Salisbury or 110 S. Long St, East Spencer
• By credit card online at https://www.fftc.org/impact-summer-reading-program. Note that credit card companies take approximately a 3 percent fee out of each transaction.
• By transfer, for those who make their donations through Foundations for the Carolinas; please call Meg Dees at 704-224-8840.
The deadline for donations is June 5.
