Above: Tonya Hayes, of the Lynn Meadows Discovery Center, tells a story to children and parents at the first night of a six-week series during the PRIME TIME Family Reading Time at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College’s Community Arts Center on the Perkinston Campus. Forty-two participants attended the event on February 23.

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, in partnership with the Mississippi Humanities Council, hosted the first PRIME TIME Family Reading Time event at the Community Arts Center at the Perkinston Campus on February 23. The six-week program is a family literacy program that targets children ages 6-10 who may be experiencing difficulty with reading, and also involves their parents in an effort to foster a lifelong love of learning through reading.

Forty-two children, parents, volunteers, storytellers, discussion leaders, and MHC and MGCCC personnel attended the inaugural event.

Althea Jerome, a musician and artist, speaks to participants at the first night during a six-week series of PRIME TIME Family Reading Time. The event will be held each Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. through April 14 at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College’s Community Arts Center on the Perkinston Campus.

PRIME TIME, a series of reading and discussion programs, includes sessions on such themes as fairness, greed, courage, cleverness and determination. A discussion leader and a storyteller introduce parents to the benefits and pleasures of reading and discussing stories with their children. The program aims to expand participants’ understanding of reading through the use of children’s literature with substantial humanities content.

The programs are free and include food, door prizes and gift books.  Fun story times that encourage early reading skills for siblings ages 3-5 are also offered.  All programs will be held at the Community Arts Center on MGCCC’s Perkinston Campus every Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. through April 14 (programs are not scheduled for March 17 or March 31).

PRIME TIME programs are sponsored by the Mississippi Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and are locally sponsored by the Friends of the Stone County Libraries and the Community Arts Center.

For more information, contact Shugana Williams, local site coordinator, at (601) 928-6259 or via e-mail at shugana.williams@mgccc.edu.

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