AUBURN - Jeremy Dodds makes it a point to read to his two young children every day.
Now, the 38-year-old Auburn Enlarged City School District math supervisor from Skaneateles wants to make sure that every parent in Cayuga County has that same opportunity.
Dodds will be traveling to Richmond, Va. in just over a week to compete in McDonald's ITU Duathlon Long Course World Championships, looking to fulfill his athletic passions while raising community awareness for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, a reading program he's looking to bring to Cayuga County.
“We know from research and our own experiences that literacy is fundamental to success in school, and obviously later in life,” he said. “So along the lines of recognizing what we need to do as both individuals and as a community is helping our students succeed and become contributing citizens.”
The Dolly Parton Imagination Library provides a book each month to every registered pre-school age child in a community. The books are free to the families of children; the program is funded through community donations.
Dodds hopes to grab the attention of community members through this high level of athletic competition for the Imagination Library and inspire people to donate funds to provide Cayuga County's children the opportunity to become stronger readers.
The Dolly Parton Imagination Library, if brought to Cayuga County, would be administered by the United Way's Success by 6, a national initiative that promotes community collaboration to support and encourage early childhood development action plans in areas of a child's life, including literacy. Locally, Success by 6 is based out of the E. John Gavras Center in Auburn.
In a national scope, research has been conducted to see who was best affected from the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. According to Nancy Tehan, director for Success by 6, the families that need literacy support are those from lower education levels, single parents and low income families.
“Parents of these kids in these environments have demonstrated a really high level of support for this program,#” she said, pointing to the tendency of parents to share information about the program to other parents with eligible children.
For a child enrolled in the program at birth, 60 picture books could arrive in the mail during the five years of eligibility, Tehan said.
Education doesn't begin in school, Tehan believes. Through this program, children are more prepared for kindergarten.
“These new books coming through the mail will increase then number of interactions before they get to school,” she said.
But literacy is only one part of Dodds' motivation for participating in the duathlon.
As an admitted “naturally competitive person,” Dodds is looking to entwine his broader passions in education and literacy with his athletic fervor.
“It's parallel in terms of setting forth to accomplish something and recognizing that it will take hard work and dedication,” he said.
And on Oct. 21, Dodds will be able to put that hard work and dedication to use as he competes against 500 athletes from more than 25 countries at the World Championship.
Athletics has played an integral part in Dodds life as far back as high school, competing in cross country and biking recreationally whenever he could. That passion never diminished when he graduated; rather, he returned to the athletic arena as a cross country and track coach while competing in running and cycling competitions.
While he was never as strong a swimmer as he was a runner and cyclist, Dodds competed in numerous triathlons - three-leg competitions that include swimming, biking and running.
“I joked with people that the swim leg of the triathlon was 'trying-not-to-drown, biking and running,'” he said.
Last November, while deciding what competitions he would train for the following season, his wife, Kristin, recommended that he focus on his strengths in running and biking rather than working on his weaker agility in the water. He turned his attention to Blackwater Traverse Duathlon, a competition in Cambridge, Md., in July in which winning in the top three would land him at the world championships.
For months he trained on the treadmill and bike trainer in his basement, training in the early morning hours before his children would awake and late at night once they were asleep for about 10 hours a week, he said.
Dodds knew that training in November for July could be problematic because of the large time span. He needed an intermediate goal, something midway that he could set his eyes on and remain steadfast in his training. So in March he ran in the National Marathon in Washington D.C., a competition that maintained his motivation.
In July his hard work paid off; he placed second in his age group and 14th overall in the competition and turned his attention to the world championships in Virginia.
Teaching wasn't always in Dodds' blood. After finishing college at Cornell University, he worked for four years as an engineer but wasn't satisfied.
“I recognized that I wanted to give back,” he said.
He soon realized he had a passion for literacy. While teaching on Cape Cod, Mass., he had a 14-year-old student with a young child the same age as his own daughter. He gave his student a book he had read to his child so she could read to her baby, he recalled.
“The general reaction I got from this student for giving the book to her was almost like 'What would I do with that?'” he said. “I remember being surprised.”
This scene solidified in his mind the need to promote literacy.
“ What we do in school is only one part of the picture in terms of children learning. Parents play so much of a role that (the Dolly Parton Imagination Library) has the potential for increasing literacy and for recognizing that it's a whole community effort,” he said.
And it will take a community effort to bring this project to Cayuga County. Success By 6 needs to raise between $63,000 and $65,000 before it can become an active affiliate, Tehan said. That money equates to the annual budgets for the first three years.
“We're getting there,” she said. “We have a lot of funds from different places. We're almost there, but we still have some dollars to raise.”
Earlier this year, Success By 6 applied to the Emerson Foundation for a grant to help jumpstart the program. The foundation responded by offering a matching plan: if Success By 6 raises $35,000 by Dec. 14, it will provide $25,000.
Dodds has been looking to get local and national companies to sponsor him for the world championships by donating money to Success By 6 for the program. Last weekend, the Geneva Bicycle Center agreed to donate money in an effort to give young children opportunities.
That is Dodds' ultimate goal. His eyes are fixated on that finish line. He wants to win the Dolly Parton Imagination Library for Cayuga County just as much as he wants to win the duathlon.
“If I can get the library funded and up and running, that will be fantastic,” he said. “That obviously does not mean that I'm not going down to Richmond in three weeks thinking that I've accomplished everything that I wanted to. Do I want to win? Of course. Am I going to? Probably not, but that's not going to stop me from trying.”
Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at alyssa.sunkin@lee.net or 253-5311 ext. 239
To donate
Make checks payable to the EJG Foundation;
write in the memo section “Imagination Library” and mail to: EJG Center, Success by 6, 182 North St., Auburn, NY 13021
Dodds will be traveling to Richmond, Va. in just over a week to compete in McDonald's ITU Duathlon Long Course World Championships, looking to fulfill his athletic passions while raising community awareness for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, a reading program he's looking to bring to Cayuga County.
“We know from research and our own experiences that literacy is fundamental to success in school, and obviously later in life,” he said. “So along the lines of recognizing what we need to do as both individuals and as a community is helping our students succeed and become contributing citizens.”
The Dolly Parton Imagination Library provides a book each month to every registered pre-school age child in a community. The books are free to the families of children; the program is funded through community donations.
Dodds hopes to grab the attention of community members through this high level of athletic competition for the Imagination Library and inspire people to donate funds to provide Cayuga County's children the opportunity to become stronger readers.
The Dolly Parton Imagination Library, if brought to Cayuga County, would be administered by the United Way's Success by 6, a national initiative that promotes community collaboration to support and encourage early childhood development action plans in areas of a child's life, including literacy. Locally, Success by 6 is based out of the E. John Gavras Center in Auburn.
In a national scope, research has been conducted to see who was best affected from the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. According to Nancy Tehan, director for Success by 6, the families that need literacy support are those from lower education levels, single parents and low income families.
“Parents of these kids in these environments have demonstrated a really high level of support for this program,#” she said, pointing to the tendency of parents to share information about the program to other parents with eligible children.
For a child enrolled in the program at birth, 60 picture books could arrive in the mail during the five years of eligibility, Tehan said.
Education doesn't begin in school, Tehan believes. Through this program, children are more prepared for kindergarten.
“These new books coming through the mail will increase then number of interactions before they get to school,” she said.
But literacy is only one part of Dodds' motivation for participating in the duathlon.
As an admitted “naturally competitive person,” Dodds is looking to entwine his broader passions in education and literacy with his athletic fervor.
“It's parallel in terms of setting forth to accomplish something and recognizing that it will take hard work and dedication,” he said.
And on Oct. 21, Dodds will be able to put that hard work and dedication to use as he competes against 500 athletes from more than 25 countries at the World Championship.
Athletics has played an integral part in Dodds life as far back as high school, competing in cross country and biking recreationally whenever he could. That passion never diminished when he graduated; rather, he returned to the athletic arena as a cross country and track coach while competing in running and cycling competitions.
While he was never as strong a swimmer as he was a runner and cyclist, Dodds competed in numerous triathlons - three-leg competitions that include swimming, biking and running.
“I joked with people that the swim leg of the triathlon was 'trying-not-to-drown, biking and running,'” he said.
Last November, while deciding what competitions he would train for the following season, his wife, Kristin, recommended that he focus on his strengths in running and biking rather than working on his weaker agility in the water. He turned his attention to Blackwater Traverse Duathlon, a competition in Cambridge, Md., in July in which winning in the top three would land him at the world championships.
For months he trained on the treadmill and bike trainer in his basement, training in the early morning hours before his children would awake and late at night once they were asleep for about 10 hours a week, he said.
Dodds knew that training in November for July could be problematic because of the large time span. He needed an intermediate goal, something midway that he could set his eyes on and remain steadfast in his training. So in March he ran in the National Marathon in Washington D.C., a competition that maintained his motivation.
In July his hard work paid off; he placed second in his age group and 14th overall in the competition and turned his attention to the world championships in Virginia.
Teaching wasn't always in Dodds' blood. After finishing college at Cornell University, he worked for four years as an engineer but wasn't satisfied.
“I recognized that I wanted to give back,” he said.
He soon realized he had a passion for literacy. While teaching on Cape Cod, Mass., he had a 14-year-old student with a young child the same age as his own daughter. He gave his student a book he had read to his child so she could read to her baby, he recalled.
“The general reaction I got from this student for giving the book to her was almost like 'What would I do with that?'” he said. “I remember being surprised.”
This scene solidified in his mind the need to promote literacy.
“ What we do in school is only one part of the picture in terms of children learning. Parents play so much of a role that (the Dolly Parton Imagination Library) has the potential for increasing literacy and for recognizing that it's a whole community effort,” he said.
And it will take a community effort to bring this project to Cayuga County. Success By 6 needs to raise between $63,000 and $65,000 before it can become an active affiliate, Tehan said. That money equates to the annual budgets for the first three years.
“We're getting there,” she said. “We have a lot of funds from different places. We're almost there, but we still have some dollars to raise.”
Earlier this year, Success By 6 applied to the Emerson Foundation for a grant to help jumpstart the program. The foundation responded by offering a matching plan: if Success By 6 raises $35,000 by Dec. 14, it will provide $25,000.
Dodds has been looking to get local and national companies to sponsor him for the world championships by donating money to Success By 6 for the program. Last weekend, the Geneva Bicycle Center agreed to donate money in an effort to give young children opportunities.
That is Dodds' ultimate goal. His eyes are fixated on that finish line. He wants to win the Dolly Parton Imagination Library for Cayuga County just as much as he wants to win the duathlon.
“If I can get the library funded and up and running, that will be fantastic,” he said. “That obviously does not mean that I'm not going down to Richmond in three weeks thinking that I've accomplished everything that I wanted to. Do I want to win? Of course. Am I going to? Probably not, but that's not going to stop me from trying.”
Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at alyssa.sunkin@lee.net or 253-5311 ext. 239
To donate
Make checks payable to the EJG Foundation;
write in the memo section “Imagination Library” and mail to: EJG Center, Success by 6, 182 North St., Auburn, NY 13021
