Jeff Sites knew his reading program was headed for success when he spotted something he had never seen in his three years as a counselor at Pacific Lodge Boys' Home: a young man ambling across the yard with his head down, eyes fixed on the pages of the open book in his hands.
"I wish I'd had a camera," Sites said. "I'd heard the buzz on campus about the reading program, but to see a kid who wouldn't put his book down, that was more than even I'd hoped for."
For most of the teenagers at Pacific Lodge -- a residential program in Woodland Hills for boys with emotional or behavioral problems -- reading hadn't been an enjoyable experience, but a frustrating and degrading chore.
More than 90% of the boys read below grade level; half cannot read as well as a typical third-grader. Many have learning disabilities, and others have had their education disrupted by unstable home lives, truancy and neglect. Most are on probation for minor crimes. Some were plucked from the streets or rescued from abusive or drug-addicted parents.
Books are in their hands today thanks to the generosity of Times readers, who contributed more than $1 million last year to the Los Angeles Times Family Fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation to help charities across Southern California provide services for needy families and disadvantaged children.
A $15,000 grant from last year's holiday campaign funded Pacific Lodge's reading program, which combines one-on-one tutoring, a computerized reading improvement system and well-stocked libraries in each residential cottage.
The foundation's 2005 holiday campaign gets underway today, and a long list of nonprofit groups have already sent their wish lists this way. Because the McCormick Tribune Foundation absorbs the fund's administrative costs, every penny raised goes directly to families and kids in need.
Last year's grants funded scores of agencies, providing, among other things, emergency food and housing for homeless families, a computer lab and homework help for struggling inner-city children, shelter and legal services for abused young women, and job training to lure discouraged youths away from crime and drugs.
Pacific Lodge used its grant to purchase workbooks and computer programs and build a reading nook in each cottage, stocked with books, a computer and comfortable furniture. Special privileges and small gifts were doled out to those who met their reading goals.
