LUNCHEON RECOGNIZES YELL SPONSRS

From making informed health decisions to researching investments to reading labels on canned soup, the ability to read impacts many parts of people's lives.

That might explain why the YELL program, which supports literacy in the area, has such a variety of sponsors helping to fund the program. Those sponsors, including area hospitals, banks and grocery stores, were recognized at a luncheon Tuesday at the Drury Lodge.

"As an agency, we support literacy because it is so important to the community," said Susan Stewart, director of marketing and planning at Southeast Missouri Hospital, one of 13 sponsors honored at the luncheon.

"We want the sponsors, many of whom have participated every year, to know how much we depend on them to support YELL," said Karen Green, president of the YELL Foundation Board of Directors and marketing coordinator at Mercantile Bank.

Green is excited about upcoming plans for raising funds for YELL, including the annual sale of the YELL edition of the Southeast Missourian and a corporate spelling contest.

Results of that support are as tangible as the paperback books a YELL grant provided at Louis J. Schultz School. The books were used to reward seventh-graders who met reading goals.

"It's amazing what seventh-graders will do to get a book," said Bonnie Matzat, a teacher at Schultz. She and several other representatives of YELL grant recipients gave sponsors an idea of how the funds raised through YELL are used.

Pat Haenni of St. Joseph School in Scott City told of the science resource books her school bought with YELL money. Linda Robert of Cape Girardeau public schools showed pictures of first- and second-graders in a group program that improved the reading abilities of children below grade level.

The largest YELL grant recipient is the Southeast Missourian Newspapers in Education program. It provided 34 weeks of delivery of newspapers to 33 schools, said Mark Kneer, circulation director for the Southeast Missourian. That's 3,428 newspapers and 3,335 Mini-Pages.

Such programs are funded through YELL, which raises money through sponsorships in the YELL publication sold on YELL Day and other fund raisers.

There are two new fund raisers for 1999. A corporate spelling bee, which will be held this winter, will raise money through an entry fee area businesses and organizations will pay to see who has the best speller in town. In addition, the Southeast Missourian will feature employees of area businesses or members of organizations that make a contribution to YELL. This is expected to raise about $10,000 for YELL.

But the major fund raiser is the YELL edition, set to come out this year on Sept. 14.

Last year, 61 groups sold $17,500 worth of papers in less than four hours, Kneer said.

One reason for those sales, said Southeast Missourian Editor Joe Sullivan, was a special section on Mark McGwire and his record-breaking season.

But McGwire won't guarantee he'll be breaking home-run records this year, Sullivan said, so other areas of interest will be covered.

Perhaps the best section, Sullivan said, will be one filled with predictions from third-graders at schools provided newspapers through YELL. The children were asked to predict what the world will be like in 50 years. Those predictions also will go into a time capsule scheduled to be buried during the SEMO District Fair. The children making predictions will be invited to attend the opening of the capsule 50 years from now.

Also in the YELL edition will be a millennium section filled with activities that can be used at school or in the home to explain what the millennium is and why it is an exciting time, and a section filled with 25 historic front pages of the Southeast Missourian.

Jane Stanley, secretary-treasurer of Crown Cadillac Olds Nissan, said the luncheon proved to her the value of her company's sponsorship of YELL projects.

"Literacy is so important," she said. "I was impressed with the way the money is being used for such a variety of projects."

Sponsors honored at the luncheon were Wal-Mart Stores, Southeast Missouri Hospital, Famous-Barr, Cape Girardeau County sheriff's office, First National Bank & Trust, St. Francis Medical Center, Cape Girardeau public schools, Crown Cadillac Olds Nissan, Schnucks, Schapers IGA, Save-A-Lot, Sylvan Learning Center and ARI.