Freedom Readers: Grand Strand nonprofit focuses on literacy to help students excel in other areas

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — Freedom Readers is a Grand Strand non-profit organization that aims to end the cycle of poverty by providing opportunities for children to improve their reading skills and academic performance.

The group, which has been on the Grand Strand for 13 years, provides one-on-one literacy tutoring, free books for home libraries and an inspiring, high-energy learning environment. 

Executive Director Tracy Bailey started the organization after noticing that an important piece of learning was missing in students. 

“Everything that I was learning told me that it was very important for kids to practice reading at home and also for them to have home libraries,” Bailey said. “So, that’s what I wanted to provide for this community.”

Thirteen years later, Freedom Readers was born. She says it is filling a very important gap. 

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — Freedom Readers is a Grand Strand nonprofit organization that aims to end the cycle of poverty by providing opportunities for children to improve their reading skills and academic performance.

The group, which has been on the Grand Strand for 13 years, provides one-on-one literacy tutoring, free books for home libraries and an inspiring, high-energy learning environment. 

Executive Director Tracy Bailey started the organization after noticing that an important piece of learning was missing in students. 

“Everything that I was learning told me that it was very important for kids to practice reading at home and also for them to have home libraries,” Bailey said. “So, that’s what I wanted to provide for this community.”

Thirteen years later, Freedom Readers was born. She says it is filling a very important gap. 

“I really understood how important it was to have a strong background in foundation and reading,” Bailey said. “Without that, you really aren’t able to go much further in any of the other subjects.”

Freedom Readers is not all about reading, but without literacy, students cannot excel in other subjects. The organization uses reading as a launch pad into communication, public speaking and even money management. 

“We’re teaching all of our scholars about investing, saving, sharing your money,” Bailey said. “We’re really excited about bringing in a lot of bankers and financial professionals to talk to our youngest students about how they can get started early on developing good money habits.”

Bailey said it is easy to come into work at the Freedom Readers every day. She says each time she sees a student succeed, it makes all of the hard work worth it. 

“I really love the story of a young man who made such progress in public speaking that he gave his speech facing the wall every week until the last week of the program, but on the last week, he turned and faced the entire crowd and there wasn’t a dry eye in the room,” Bailey said. “Everybody knew how much progress he had made, how much confidence he had gained and just how much that was gonna benefit him for the rest of his life.”