Programs
Matt Birk's HIKE Foundation has two signature programs:
Matt Birk's HIKE Foundation launched "Ready, Set, Read!" in select Baltimore area public schools in the fall of 2010. The goal of "Ready, Set, Read!" is to motivate and encourage more than 100,000 elementary school children to read at home by the fall of 2011.
- Matt serves as the "Reading Spokesman" for all City Schools' elementary and middle schools. Matt will hammer home the importance of reading through a series of audio/video PSA's, motivational-style posters and social media outlets that encourage students to read.
- "Ready, Set, Read!" offers incentives to students who really work hard to read. Students can receive all kinds of prizes, just for reading. They can win everything from gift cards, to T-shirts, to autographed pictures of Matt, to Ravens' jerseys, Ravens tickets and great prizes from Under Armour. The Grand Prize is a full school assembly and party with Matt for the Baltimore City Public School that has read the most minutes.
Partnered with Scholastic, "Read and Rise" is the HIKE Foundation's literacy initiative designed to bring families, schools and communities together to support children's literacy development. "Read and Rise" works to:
- Help families foster the skills, attitudes, and behaviors that support children's literacy development.
- Help schools engage families through fun, literacy-based events.
- Better prepare children for reading and learning.
- Support schools with their family engagement goals.
Through the collective efforts of Clear Channel and the HIKE Foundation, we will provide over 15,000 books to more than 5,000 at-risk, Title I children; giving them the ability to connect with books they want to read. The following schools will take part in the "Read and Rise" program:
Bay-Brook Elementary & Middle - 565 students
Dr. Bernard Harris, Sr. Elementary - 540 students
Frederick Elementary - 325 students
Graceland Park O'Donnell Elementary & Middle - 350 students
Harlem Park Elementary - 304 students
Holabird Elementary - 300 students
Inner Harbor East Academy for Young Scholars - 344 students
James McHenry Elementary - 325 students
Mary E. Rodman Elementary - 350 students
Northwood Elementary - 166 students
Sarah M. Roach Elementary - 250 students
Tench Tilghman Elementary - 460 students
William C. March Middle - 420 students
Windsor Hills Elementary - 266 students
