QuickStart Tennis of Central Virginia, Inc. (QCV) is pleased to report the 70 preschoolers at Cumberland Elementary School (CES) have received their final book from Racquets for Reading for this school year. The giveaways in Cumberland were funded by a grant from the Weyerhaeuser Foundation.

Kathy McCutcheon, Lead Preschool teacher at CES, said “Here I am with one last HUGE thank you from the Cumberland Pre-Kindergarten team and children. We sent each student home with the book I know an Old Lady who swallowed the ABCs as a great way to help them remember all those letters they have learned this year over summer break. These kids get so excited when they see that they get to take a book home and keep it for their very own. QuickStart tennis has gifted us the gift of smiles and a future of kids who love to read. We sent home six different titles this year Pete the Cat Snow Daze, Little Bear’s Special Friend, A Loud Winter’s Nap, One is a Piñata, The Caring me I want to be, and I know an Old Lady Who Swallowed the ABCs. Next year’s lucky kids will be greeted with a new school year and three new book titles as well: The Mitten, I Believe I can and Listening with my Heart. Many of the books this year have focused on social emotional skill building as that was an area that we saw a great need. We are looking forward to continuing to partner with you in getting great books into the hands of young children so the love of reading is instilled at an early age.”

Lynda Harrill, QCV QuickStart Coordinator, adds, “We love working with the people at CES and Kathy in particular. She has been a rockstar since the beginning and completely embraced what we were aiming to do with Racquets for Reading.”

Visit the website to learn more about what QCV is doing to promote physical activity, healthy eating and early childhood literacy for kids in our service area.

ABOUT QCV

QuickStart Tennis of Central Virginia is an all-volunteer, grassroots Community Tennis Association established in 2009 as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization to promote, develop and grow QuickStart Tennis in the heart of Virginia for all beginners, especially underserved youth, using the kid-sized QuickStart Tennis format. QCV’s service area includes, Amelia, Appomattox, Brunswick, Buckingham, Campbell, Charlotte, Culpeper, Cumberland, Dinwiddie, Fluvanna, Franklin, Greene, Greensville, Halifax, Henry, Louisa, Lunenburg, Madison, Mecklenburg, Nelson, Nottoway, Orange, Patrick Pittsylvania, Prince Edward, Powhatan and Rappahannock counties and the cities of Charlottesville, Danville and Martinsville, plus under a special arrangement, King George County. We currently serve 214 schools with 101,000 kids, 15 parks & recreation departments, three Boys & Girls Clubs and two YMCAs, in 31 Virginia counties and independent cities. We have also gotten tennis into PE classes in 37 additional schools with 16,000 students in Virginia communities outside our service area.