TEN YEARS OF YELL

The volunteers swarming the streets early this morning to sell copies of the YELL edition are keeping up a tradition that started in 1991, when Marvel Comics' superhero Spiderman made an appearance and all 9,000 of the YELL newspapers printed were sold.

The Cape Girardeau City Council passed a resolution that year to allow street sales in the city for the first time ever.

Spiderman won't be back this year, but YELL is.

YELL stands for Youth, Education, Literacy, Learning. It is an outgrowth of a popular Newspapers in Education program run by the Southeast Missourian and an Area Wide United Way desire to sponsor an Old Newsboys Day such as occurs in St. Louis.

The YELL newspaper is being sold today by some 300 volunteers at intersections in Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Scott City. Most of the money is used to put newspapers in the classrooms in those cities -- in some classes daily and in others weekly.

The program has raised between $28,000 and $35,000 each year. About $100,000 of the total amount has gone toward literacy grants to schools.

Kim McDowell, a member of the YELL Foundation board, says the biggest change in the program occurred two years ago when YELL became a not-for-profit foundation. That allows all the funds donated to be tax deductible, which allows for greater funding from corporations.

Another change that has occurred since the inception of the YELL edition is the newspaper itself. In the beginning it focused on how literacy affects people and provided information about where to get help with literacy.

That information is still included, but for three years running the edition has included a special souvenir section. It started with slugger Mark McGwire's quest to break the home-run record. Last year's souvenir section focused on the millennium. This year's edition will provide a an entire serial of the popular "Hank the Cowdog" series.

The funds raised by YELL newspaper sales and sponsorships also provide for summer reading programs at libraries. Betty Martin, head librarian at the Cape Girardeau Public Library, says YELL funds have paid for incentives distributed to children who participate in the library's summer reading club programs.

Both the Cape Girardeau School District and Southeast Missouri State University sponsor programs that promote literacy, but YELL is the only literacy project of its kind in the area.

The award-winning program is recognized both for its ability to raise funds on behalf of literacy and "because the newspaper itself is conveying the message that day of how important literacy is," McDowell said.

Many service clubs get full participation from their members, who help hawk papers on YELL day.

"I think people enjoy selling the newspaper on the streets," McDowell said. "They have a heck of a time being the old newsboy."

Putting a focus on the importance of literacy once a year on YELL day has benefits throughout the year, McDowell says.

"I think the program has done a whole lot for that awareness. Many reading programs and tutoring programs have a lot more support because of the awareness our community gives to the importance of reading."