SOAR celebrates a decade of reaching the county’s youngest learners

An early childhood learning agency is celebrating 10 years of service to the youngest in the community and the caregivers responsible for their earliest learning experiences. SOAR - which stands for Strategies, Opportunities, Advantages and Resources - has become a fixture in the county, and made early learning a reality for thousands of children.

The name embodies what the organization has to offer, said program director Vicki Yonts. “We want to give them strategies to become better early learners... we also want to give them opportunities to attend events and to learn.”

Yonts said she is often visited by people from other counties who want to know more about the work being done here, so she feels like our children are being given a great advantage.

“And of course, resources are so important,” Yonts adds, “that’s where the foundation is so good to provide real, hands-on resources for our children.”

A local task force was established to research programs to improve literacy and kindergarten readiness, in response to the generosity of Felix E. Martin Jr., who left the bulk of his estate to create the Felix E. Martin Jr. Foundation. “They soon realized Muhlenberg County would be best served by creating a program which could focus its full attention on those initiatives,” said Martin Foundation president Alyssa Manning.

The SOAR program began in 2011, and Yonts has led the program since its inception. Funded through grants from the Martin Foundation and working in partnership with Muhlenberg County Public Schools, SOAR has impacted the lives of thousands of children in the county.

In 2021-2022, the foundation has committed nearly $300,000 to supporting SOAR and other kindergarten readiness programs in Muhlenberg County,” Manning said. “Since the first early childhood grants were awarded, the foundation has distributed more than $2.5 million for programs and initiatives focused on children from birth to four years old in Muhlenberg County.”

The first program Yonts created is the popular summer reading program, Books-n-Cream. The program pairs free books with reading parties and ice cream. “The first year we had 74 kids,” Yonts said, “and this year, I think we had 564 kids, so we’ve come a long way.”

This past summer, Books-n-Cream distributed 4,244 free books to youngsters during the four-week camp.

Over the course of the 2020-2021 program year, SOAR has distributed 35,992 books, free of charge, through their many reading programs.

From the dentist’s office, to the barber shop, to the school bus and beyond, SOAR has worked with partners to distribute books to early learners throughout the county.

This access to reading materials is paired with campaigns seen on billboards and posters all around the county, highlighting the importance of reading daily with young children. “I believe that parents take it very seriously about reading to their children 15 minutes every day, or more,” Yonts said.

Another popular program SOAR provides is Ready for Kindergarten. This is a national program, administered locally by SOAR, which provides workshops for parents and caregivers on how to prepare little ones for kindergarten. Paired with a kindergarten camp, organizers are able to assess future kindergarten students and help better prepare them for starting school.

The Imagination Library is another of the reading programs, done in partnership with the Dollywood Foundation. Parents can register when their child is born to receive books in the mail until age five. “Since its inception in 2009, we’ve given away 161,714 books through that program,” Yonts said.

SOAR has community partners who help with the distribution of books, financial support and the creation of opportunities for parents and children to enjoy events that promote early childhood education. The list is long, and includes everyone from law enforcement to the hospital, tourism commissions to local mayors.

“All the mayors in Muhlenberg County work with us, and go in and read to classes,” Yonts said, although the pandemic has made this impossible the past year or so, she added.

Now that the program is 10 years old, Yonts said they are beginning to see the effects of their efforts. They are currently working on assessing the impact of early reading programs on the county’s school children.

“We have been able to keep up with our kids that started the program, and now we’re going back to look and see how well they’ve done. We know that third grade reading scores are very good, and we do contribute that some to the books in the home, and taking reading a little bit more seriously.”

Manning, with the Martin Foundation, said Yonts and her small staff rely on partners to continue their success.

“The foundation is so proud of SOAR’s work over the past 10 years, and the partnerships that have been born through its county-wide initiatives. While the SOAR staff is small, we’ve been able to rely on the incredible team of people and organizations who are focused on early childhood in Muhlenberg County. This team truly works together with one mission – to create opportunities for Muhlenberg children to succeed,” Manning said.

Yonts said she looks forward to what the next 10 years might bring for SOAR and is proud of the work they have done to build a culture of reading awareness in the community.

“When I’m at Walmart and someone says, ‘Hey, we’re reading 15 minutes every day!’ or they have little bitty babies and they say, ‘We’ve already started reading!’, I think that’s a cultural change,” Yonts said.

For more information about SOAR, the programs they provide and how to get involved, contact the SOAR office at 270-543-0255 or by email at vicki.yonts@muhlenberg.kyschools.us