JCLC Program Manager Amanda Telford said the event is through the homeschool “Parent As Teachers” curriculum where families are invited to stroll through downtown Jamestown to visit various readers, “We’re fortunate that we have a lot of volunteers, so the first spot is the Reg and we have someone who is going to read there. And then the children will walk over to the Fire hall and one of the firemen will read. And then they will walk over to City Hall. The mayor is going to read there.”

She said readers will then go to the Wintergarden Plaza and end at the Prendergast Library.

Telford said they came up with the idea of a “Roll & Read” to get children moving, “Just promoting that exercise is an important part of their health. Reading is an important part to growing your brain. And “Parent As Teachers” has been doing “Roll & Read” for years and years. So, we just adapt that from them.”

Telford said schools in walking distance of downtown also will be involved. In the event of inclement weather, the reading event will be moved inside the Northwest Arena.

Parents interested in participating need to register by Wednesday, June 8th by calling JCLC at 716-483-5624 ext. 1. There is no cost to participate.

Jamestown City Council

Jamestown Renaissance Corporation‘s Mary Maxwell will do a presentation of the Paint Jamestown Program at the Housing Committee meeting at 6:45 p.m.

Chautauqua Home Rehab & Improvement Corporation Executive Director Joshua Freifeld will present at the full work session about new housing grant programs.

The Public Safety Committee will review two special event permit applications including one by the City for the 74th Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Allen Park on Saturday, April 16. The other event permit application is from the Jamestown Community Learning Council for a “Roll and Read” event scheduled for 8:30 a.m. to noon on Friday, June 10. That event will feature groups of children and adults walking to various stations around the city and listening to stories read by a community volunteer.

The City Council committee meetings start at 6:45 p.m. with the full work session beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the fourth floor Police Training Room. The work session will be livestreamed and all meetings are open to the public.

Refugee Resettlement Discussion at St. Luke’s Episcopal held in December 2021

Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church is moving forward with an initiative to bring refugees to Jamestown.

Church Pastor Luke Fodor said Saint Luke’s took hold of the initiative following a meeting held last Fall to gauge interest in Jamestown becoming a resettlement community. He said after the start of the new year, he’s spoke with School Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker to make sure the school district was willing to be on board, “And then we just started putting people together. Been meeting every other week. I discovered that we have a ringer in our community. My wife works at the Jamestown Community Learning Council with Beth (Litton) and she said, ‘Well, you know we have an employee who did refugee resettlement for seven years down in Nashville. Do you think she’d be helpful?’ I said, ‘Hell yeah!'”

Beth Litton said during the time she volunteered and then worked as a Refugee Clinic Manager at Siloam Health, the populations of people she worked with shifted a bit, “So, a lot of times it’s maybe a couple years out of a war or a conflict in a certain region that we’ll start to see families arriving from those countries. So, I worked with arrivals from Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Burma.. all over.”

Fodor said Saint Luke’s is working with refugee resettlement agency, Journey’s End, which is located in Buffalo, “The timeframe is still being negotiated because they are overwhelmed. We’re still working out many of the details as far as when we might start seeing some families coming down and who that would be. Initial conversations have talked about two families and then we would just kind of build this program out.”

You can hear the full interview with Pastor Luke Fodor and Jamestown Community Learning Council’s Beth Litton on Community Matters at 5pm this Thursday on WRFA.

Donations of sweaters, winter coats, snow pants, boots, hats, gloves, and scarves are being accepted through the end of the year at a drop-off box by the reception desk at Audubon.

Donations can be dropped off during regular building hours, Monday through Saturdays, 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., and 1 – 4:30 p.m. on Sundays.

Clothes will be given to the Jamestown Community Learning Council for distribution.

The grant is an annual award of $579,500 over a five-year period, yielding nearly $3 million dollars over the life of the grant. The funds will be used by Jamestown Schools to provide supplemental services and enrichments for some 500 Jamestown elementary and middle school students, during the critical after school hours between 3:00 and 6:00 PM.

The district will work to provide the services with several community partners, including the YWCA, YMCA, Chautauqua Striders, Jamestown Community Learning Council, Infinity, CASAC and the Hispanic Community Council.

The State Education Department awarded more than $78 million in grants to school districts, not-for-profits, institutes of higher education, and other community-focused organizations through the program.