The Thinkers Program is a nonprofit program that we started to increase the literacy rates and ultimately the upward mobility of elementary students in Statesville. Because the ability to read is a skill that is not inherent to language, access to text within the first few years of life has proven to be effective in determining which students will attend college. Income effects early exposure to reading significantly, as students from less-affluent families are not gaining proper practice with text. Large amounts of research highlight the benefits of being literate for the average American, while simultaneously displaying the urgency of literacy interventions for illiterate students. In most schools by fourth grade students are expected to comprehend what they are reading opposed to recognizing and reciting words. In fact, 96% of third graders who are proficient readers graduate high school, at the same token, students that are not proficient readers of by the start of fourth grade are 4x more likely to leave high school without a diploma and if that student is from an impoverished family they are 6x more likely to leave high school without. a diploma. Which is a problem, especially because most cases of illiteracy results from a families lack of access to books which effects a child's overall livelihood as over 80% of all prison inmates are functionally illiterate, and one study found that 76% of prison inmates that leave prison and receive reading rehabilitation did not return to prison opposed to the 16% that did not receive reading rehabilitation and went back to prison. In a community with high concentrations of poverty and continuous poor testing, this program will work with rising first grade student implementing phonemic awareness to increase the reading knowledge to build off of while combatting the summer slide. This will be a full-day camp that takes place one month before school starts, five days per week. We want to provide our students with proper aid and training and that is where funds will be invested. We will make sure that all camp attendees are receiving top of the line literacy training from teacher liaisons and start the school year with a backpack stocked with their necessary supplies, over ten books, The Thinkers' Program gear and planners/diaries to promote organizations and creative thought. Time is most important gift that we will give to these students as we ultimately want to make our campers feel like they constantly have someone that is on their side, supporting them unconditionally.