The 2019 Leadership San Ramon Valley class is leading a fundraising campaign to enhance literacy instruction in our local schools to honor the memory of Maddie Hurd. They have raised $5,000 so far and are continuing their efforts with May is Pizza Madness. Four local pizza restaurants are participating and providing a generous contribution of sales over multiple days. See the flyer for the calendar and coupons. Maddie was a graduate of the San Ramon Valley Unified School District and was attending college in Washington State when she was tragically killed in a car accident on her way to Mount Baker Ski Area where she was an instructor supervisor. Maddie had dyslexia, a language-based learning disability, which significantly impacted her reading and writing. Much research exists on how the brain learns to read, in both typical readers and those with learning disabilities like dyslexia, but there is a large gap between the knowledge from this research and the practice of teaching reading in most school settings. Research shows that all readers, and especially those with reading disabilities, benefit from a structured, sequential approach that teaches them the code of their written language and develops automatic word recognition. With hard work, patience, dedication and the support of her family and many of her teachers, Maddie was an excellent student and an outstanding young woman, despite her reading and writing challenges. In honor of Maddie’s memory, the LSRV class of 2019 is raising funds to help educators improve their knowledge and practice
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