(C4C) Comics for Change

Vital Stats

Jordyn S

Reedsburg, WI

  • people helped550
  • People Doing It 12

The Problem

As a 14 year old, I started my own 501(c)3 non-profit so that I could create community service projects to engage teen volunteers. Currently, at age 16, I have created my third community service project, C4C (Comics 4 Change), to try to combat high school drop out rates by improving the reading levels of students at the elementary level. My goal is to help engage struggling or reluctant young readers to develop the critical skills necessary to read more challenging works, including the classics. I hope to achieve this goal by hosting comic book fairs at local elementary schools to help engage struggling or reluctant young readers to develop the critical skills necessary to read more challenging works, including the classics. My community is currently my hometown of Reedsburg, which has several elementary schools. I then expect to branch out to my entire school district and then hopefully the state of Wisconsin. Currently, only 69% of my local elementary school’s 3rd grade students meet or exceed the reading standards. This is extremely disappointing. The district average is 77% and the average for the State of Wisconsin is 78%. The profits from the comic book fairs are creating scholarships in the school district for student activities (such as Forensics and Mock Trial) that normally go unnoticed, but yet are extremely influential in helping a student excel in life and be accepted into a 4-year college. Student volunteers are reading to pre-school students and helping elementary school students read. These teen volunteers are also collecting book donations at the fairs to send to a local homeless shelter and a mission in South Africa to start their own libraries.

Plan of Action

I organized my first comic book fair this spring by contacting my school district to seek their support. They loved the idea and gave me permission to conduct several comic book fairs in the school during special events. I then contacted the Elk’s Club, The Reedsburg Rotary, and the Reedsburg Kiwanis Club (local civic organizations) who offered to donate money to C4C so that I could purchase comics for the students. My local library also offered to let me conduct comic book fairs in the library on weekends. I promoted my events in the local newspapers, radio and cable station. I also printed up flyers for the students to take home to their parents with information about illiteracy and teen drop-outs rates. My slogan has been “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” My first events were successful, but I now realize that I need more resources to address this growing problem that our nation is facing. I want to inspire young people to develop a life-long love of reading in order to improve their academic and literacy skills. However, I realize that many children can’t afford to purchase a comic book, which can cost from $1.25 all the way up to $15.00 for graphic novels. I would like to be able to organize a weekly reading program at the local library and give a comic to each child that attends as a reward. I also want to create a reading program at the elementary schools and reward the participants with comics. The local police department has agreed to let me donate comics to them to hand out to children that are involved in a crisis situation or to those students that they simply feel may need a comic to give them something to do to keep them out of trouble. There are also those young children that have never owned any reading material and my goal is to get a comic in each of their hands.
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High School Dropouts

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