Delray’s a champ

It’s an All-America City three-peat.

DELRAY BEACH – Delray Beach has won a prestigious national civic award that recognizes the city’s efforts for encouraging youth literacy.

The National Civic League, a nonprofit organization founded by former President Theodore Roosevelt, for nearly seven decades has sponsored the All-America City Award. Of the 53 communities that applied for this year’s award, the civic league honored 15, including two in Florida — Delray Beach as well as Manatee and Sarasota counties, which have a joint program.

“It’s such an honor to receive our third All America City award, the oldest and most prestigious civic award by the National Civic League,” said Mayor Cary Glickstein.

Out of the more than two dozen Florida communities that have won in the past, Delray is the first in the state to win the All-America City Award three times. It won in 1993 and 2001.

This year’s award, whose winners were recently announced in Denver, recognized communities for helping lowincome children achieve early reading success. For the past five years, Delray Beach has coordinated with schools, students and parents to improve

youth literacy, attendance rates and school preparedness.

The community’s work has contributed to a 25 percent improvement in grade level reading for kindergarten through third grade across Delray public schools, Glickstein said.

“Working together, we have made meaningful and measurable progress in addressing one of our country’s greatest challenges — improving reading proficiency among our youth,” he said.

To combat a summer reading slide and improve learning, Delray formed a board that includes school administrators, nonprofits and city leaders, Glickstein said. It also hired an education coordinator to spearhead the effort focusing on three key areas: school readiness, attendance and summer learning, he said.

Together, they put together local programs such as summer camps where students read stories, review vocabulary and discuss themes, said Janet Meeks, education coordinator.