PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
 
!!! Excellent Photo-Op for Three Kings Day !!!
 
Teens to Promote Literacy for THREE KINGS DAY
 
Thursday, January 5, 2006
4:00 P.M. - 5:00 P.M.
                                            
The Kennedy Elementary School
7 Bolster St.  Jamaica Plain (enter rear door in school yard off Mozart St.)
  
Contact:            Ken Tangvik, Director of Program Development, Hyde Square Task Force
                         617-905-7424, ktangvik@aol.com
 
On Thursday, January 5, 2006, teen leaders with the Hyde Square Task Force will be dressed as the traditional THREE KINGS in the afternoon (4:00 P.M.) at the J. F.Kennedy Elementary School in Jamaica Plain. The Kennedy School, with a student population that is over 75% Latino, has become an important cultural institution for the Latino community in Jamaica Plain and throughout Boston.
 
The teens will be giving out traditional presents to the 40 elementary-age children in the Task Force’s after-school program at the Kennedy School.  They will also be giving each child a book and they will spend time reading books to the children to promote literacy and a love for reading.
 
The after-school program at the Kennedy is unique in that teen serve as literacy tutors and work with the children in one-to-one and small group literacy activities each afternoon during the school year. The teens also work in a summer literacy camp during July and August.
 
“Through this traditional cultural celebration we want to use teens as role models to promote reading with the young children,” said Brenda Rodriguez-Andujar, the Director of After-School and Cultural Programming at the Hyde Square Task Force.  “We have seen that teens can have a very powerful influence in the lives of younger children.”