Can you spare 90 minutes next Friday to save the life of a Perry Elementary School third grader?
Lifesaving isn’t only about rushing into burning buildings or diving into raging rivers or even shooting a bad man with a gun. There is also the quieter heroism of teaching a child to read — or to read better — and all the benefits that follow from literacy, such as reduced rates of poverty, incarceration, substance abuse and mental illness.
And it only takes 90 minutes on Friday, Dec. 1 at the Everybody Wins! Iowa special event at Perry Elementary, where 107 third graders will be paired with 107 adult reading mentors.
Christine Russell, program manager for Everybody Wins! Iowa, explained the idea behind the mass reading event.
“United Way of Central Iowa has a day of action every year in Des Moines,” Russell said, “and they’ve had corporations and people come into the schools and read with third graders. This year they gave us books for our third graders here at Perry Elementary, so we are inviting community members in on Friday, Dec. 1. They can come in and pair up one to one with a third grader and hopefully, if we get enough people, we’ll be able to read a book and the literature kit that goes along with that.”
The Friday group read starts at 8:30 a.m. and finishes at 10 a.m.
“We going to read with just third graders on just that one day,” Russell said. “That’s it. Mentors don’t have to make a commitment for the rest of the year. It’s just one day. We’re going to all swoop in and have some fun reading with third graders.”
Russell directs 72 programs at 34 sites in Dallas, Polk, Warren and Marion counties. She said that adds up to more than 500 mentor-and-student matches.
“We’re really thrilled to be in all those places,” Russell said, “and we thank you for this opportunity.”
Now in its second year at the Perry Elementary School, the Everybody Wins! Iowa Power Lunch program pairs adult volunteers with students for a weekly, 50-minute, one-on-one reading adventure.
The reading-mentoring program pairs mentors and elementary students with the shared goal of increasing the students’ success in school and life, according to Kathleen Eineke, site coordinator of Perry’s Everybody Wins! program.
This year’s program in Perry — on Thursdays and Fridays — has expanded from third graders to second and fourth graders, too. Ideally, a volunteer reads with the same child over several years and develops a strong bond over books.
“We love our reading mentors,” Eineke said, “and we can always use more volunteers. We have plenty of children who need a little help with reading.”
For more information about Everybody Wins! or to volunteer, call Kathy Miner at 515-465-2441.
