Reading Pals bring smiles to area schools
How can you make a difference in a child’s life with just one hour of your time per week?
Volunteer to become a ReadingPal for one of the 68 children on the waiting list. To help tackle the education gap in our community, 200 volunteers are matched with 4-year-olds and serve 25 hours during the 2015-16 school year.
ReadingPal volunteers never have to worry about a lack of excitement. Prekindergarten students eagerly await each week, ready to learn new words and make new associations. Designed as a school-based mentoring program, ReadingPals helps 4-year-olds gain the strong pre-literacy skills necessary for kindergarten success. It is a program that instills a passion for learning in students and sets them up for brighter academic futures.
Trip Maygarden, United Way’s Community Impact Board chair, explained the impact this program has on the community.
“Insufficient school readiness is one of the chief obstacles to educational success in this community. The ReadingPals program attempts to overcome this problem by pairing students with volunteers who provide the students with one-on-one instruction in age-appropriate learning activities. This program is vitally important to our community and its continuing effort to improve educational outcomes.”
In addition to providing improvements in education, ReadingPals offers volunteers the opportunity to have fun while they serve the community.
“I always worry that my Reading Pal won’t want to stop playing with his friends to come inside and read with me,” ReadingPals volunteer Amy Workman said. “When I show up during recess, he runs over and grabs my hand, and we go inside to pick out a literacy kit. Every hour is filled with laughter and new experiences for both my 4-year-old ReadingPal and me.”
Themed literacy kits include a five book library and manipulatives that engage children in entertaining activities. The kits allow volunteers to transition smoothly from reading to games aimed at improving phonological awareness and other key skills including mathematics and vocabulary. These kits ensure that both the child and volunteer can find an exciting activity to learn from during the hour. With a multitude of hugs and smiles from dozens of children, many volunteers would agree with ReadingPal Jess Veasley that the program “has easily become the highlight of (their) week.”
ReadingPals is much more than just a fun way to volunteer. Workman explained the impact that the program has on everyone involved. “Volunteering takes just one hour of your time once per week. The difference you make in your ReadingPal’s life and the difference they make in yours can’t really be measured.” While helping to improve educational outcomes for students in Escambia County, volunteers often acknowledge that their own lives are positively changed as well.
Although great strides have been made this academic year, many children are waiting for the chance to learn and smile alongside their friends. Join today so you can be the source of a smile for a child who needs a Pal.
Become a ReadingPal
To help one of the 68 children on the ReadingPal waiting list, call United Way at 434-3157 or visit www.unitedwayescambia.org/readingpals.