HOUSTON — Barbara Bush championed literacy as First Lady and that legacy will live on through the foundation she inspired in Houston.
It helps young and old harness the power of reading.
“She recognized that reading can be transformative and that if more people read, write and comprehend, a lot of our world’s problems would be solved,” said Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation president Julie Baker Finck.
The foundation she formed has generated more than $50 million for the cause.
And five years ago, Neil and Maria Bush began the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation to specifically benefit the Bush’s hometown.
It was Neil's own struggle with reading as a child that molded her lifelong mission.
It started when she attended reading day at her son’s school.
“So there’s a reading circle and all the kids have a book and they’re passing the book kid to kid and they passed it to me and I couldn’t read,” he said.
His mother was shocked and began learning everything she could about illiteracy. She found the statistics alarming.
“Far too many children, about 60 percent of children, enter kindergarten lacking adequate pre-literacy skills,” said Finck.
Mrs. Bush, helped pass the National Literacy Act of 1991, took a keen interest in the organization and happily volunteered her time.
“We were setting forth to break the Guinness World Record for the number of children read to in a 24 hour period,” recalled Finck. “And Mrs. Bush said “I want to help, I want to be a reader.”
Finck’s office is filled with photos of her and the former First Lady.
A woman from whom she draws endless inspiration.
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“You know, we have been working very hard to carry forth her legacy and realize her vision for empowering more people to learn how to read,” said Finck.
The woman known as "The First Lady of Literacy" may have put it best.
One of her quotes hangs in the foundation offices: “If you help a person to read, then their opportunities in life will be endless.”