Mayor Donna Deegan has announced that her River City Readers literacy initiative has met and already exceeded the goal she set of encouraging the entire city to read one million minutes collectively this year.
Together, hundreds of local readers using the free Beanstack app to log their reading minutes passed the one million minutes threshold in early June, even though they had until the end of 2024 to reach the goal.
Mayor Deegan is now announcing a stretch goal of 1.5 million minutes read by the end of December and is encouraging the city’s young readers to keep at it.
“We are so excited about the incredible way kids and parents are participating in River City Readers,” said Mayor Deegan. “So now, our stretch goal of one and a half million minutes will keep them motivated. If we meet this goal, we’ll increase the prizes kids will receive! Together we can improve literacy numbers in Jacksonville.”
The Deegan administration launched Mayor Deegan’s River City Readers earlier this year to encourage more kids to read consistently. Less than half of Duval County third graders are currently reading on grade level.
The top young readers taking part in the initiative will receive prizes and public recognition at the end of this year.
For more about the literacy initiative, visit
www.jacksonville.gov/rivercityreaders.