The Mitchel Perrizo Jr. Leaders are Readers Fund, a designated fund under the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF), recently awarded $45,000 to three school districts in Faribault and Blue Earth Counties to support early literacy initiatives.
In 2021 Mike and Tami Hoffman provided a $1 million grant from the Michael J. and Tamara Rae Hoffman Family Charitable Gift Fund to SMIF for the creation of a designated fund dedicated to early literacy. Since then, $180,000 has been awarded from the fund. Three school districts in Southern Minnesota are eligible on an annual basis for these grants.
The 2025 Mitchel Perrizo Jr. Leaders are Readers Grants of $15,000 each were awarded to Blue Earth Area Schools to expand their reading program to fluent readers by providing science and social studies books that help build vocabularies and content knowledge.
Maple River Schools to implement a writing program and to support a summer tutoring program for reading intervention.
United South Central Public Schools to purchase a phonics curriculum, a license for a digital intervention tool called Amplify Boost Reading and a subscription to a language program called Project Read.
The Mitchel Perrizo Jr. Leaders are Readers Fund supports investments in elementary teachers, primarily Kindergarten through 3rd Grade, allowing them to master literacy fundamentals to transform student learning into a lifetime love of reading and literacy success.
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