Plant a Seed… READ! Denim & Diamond Gala set for Oct. 14

Plant a Seed… READ!, a local non-profit promoting early childhood literacy and educational development will hold the Denim & Diamonds Gala Oct. 14 at the Eagles Club, a fundraising event for the organization’s Play to Learn Center, and a chance to honor their donors and supporters.

Plant a Seed… READ! Executive Program Director Lorraine Verploegen said they will be giving out an award to a couple of their donors who hit the $10,000 mark, donors who made it possible to provide their services to young children in the community when they otherwise couldn’t have.

Verploegen said they will also honor a local organization for their own work supporting early childhood development.

“We’ve never had the chance to really honor the donors and the people in our community that have played an important role in promoting early childhood readiness,” she said.

She said the fundraiser’s primary focus is helping fund the organization’s Play to Learn Center, a children’s museum designed for children from 1 to 5 years old to promote early learning readiness skills through hands-on educational experiences including literacy, science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics.

She said they’ve been consulting with other children’s museums as well as Melbourne Kids Village in Florida to develop a plan for their museum, which has been an interesting experience.

She said the establishment of this center is phase 2 of their long-term plan for their organization, and something they’ve wanted to do for almost 13 years.

Verploegen said their phase 1 goal was to partner with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library Program, through which they can provide age-appropriate books to Hill County’s 1,300 children, which can be read to them by parents or older siblings.

She said reading to children at these very young ages exposes them to language, improves attention span, develops listening skills, and introduces them to a wider-world of ideas to promote further learning.

She said things like this can help all children, but especially those whose parents find themselves in positions, financial or otherwise, that require them to delay their child’s schooling.

It can also help children being raised by grandparents, who don’t always know what kind of resources are available to them, as well as parents already participating in early childhood readiness programs, but who need a little more support, especially for children in the 3 to 5 years old range.

As for the gala itself, she said, they are going to have a lot of fun events for adults and children with games, a live and silent auction and a sit-down dinner, a first for the organization.

She said dinner will feature a pulled-pork sandwich, potato salad, pasta salad, baked beans and a selection of desserts.

Verploegen said tickets to the event are $50, and come with an entry to win the $2,000 cash prize as well as $1,000 shopping sprees to local shops like Valley Furniture.

They will also have a 50/50 raffle, she said, with half of the money going toward a scholarship to support a local Montana State University-Northern student working toward obtaining an education degree, an endeavor that can be time consuming and costly, but one that is very important.

They will also have a bingo game with prizes, and a secret game, but people will need to come to the event to see what it is, she said.

Other prizes available at the event will include tickets to local museums and events for parents and their children.

“We want this to be a family event,” Verploegen said. “ … We just want people to come and have fun and learn something about early childhood readiness.”

The event will take place Saturday, Oct. 14, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Havre Eagles Club.