Nelson and Bogott Key Volunteers for Northfield Promise
Written by Rachel Miessler
Note: This article first appeared in the April 10, 2019 edition of Northfield News
Northfield Promise: a promise to the community to help all children thrive from cradle to career. As the website states, “Northfield Promise is a challenge to, and with, the community. It challenges Northfield to ensure all children succeed and, thus, deliberately focuses attention and resources on disparities in achievement and access among Northfield’s children.” This important work can only be done because of amazing volunteers like Connie Nelson and Fritz Bogott.
Connie Nelson is a co-chair of the Northfield Promise Reading Team where she brings her expertise from many years as an elementary school teacher. Nelson is passionate about helping children learn to read, working in a leadership role with Reading Corps, striving to increase access to books for low income families, and riding the Northfield Promise/Northfield Public Library Book Bike to events around town.
The backbone staff member from Northfield Healthy Community Initiative for the Reading Team, Laura Turek, regularly works with Nelson. “Connie has been a consistent, positive presence to the Northfield literacy efforts for many years,” says Turek. “It is her calm, yet driven style that attracts and retains so many partner organizations. This allows the group to align efforts across the community, true to the collective impact model that is Northfield Promise.”
Nelson’s Reading Team co-chair, Fritz Bogott, leads the team with energy, dedication, and a focus on the goals. “One of his largest contributions has been his leadership with identifying a national strategic framework for improving reading,” explains Turek. “He helped find a set of evidence-based strategies that are proven to improve reading across communities and thus led to applying for membership to be a part of it — the Campaign for Grade Level Reading.”
Dedicated volunteers are the power behind this important Northfield initiative. The work of Nelson, Bogott, and many additional volunteers is critical to the success of Northfield Promise.
Thank you for your commitment to our students and this community, Connie and Fritz!
