Four representatives of the Des Moines Book Buddy program met Friday with eight Perry residents interested in helping organize a Perry section of the kids’ reading group.
Book Buddy is an early-reading program for children from low-income families. Children who acquire pre-literacy skills in the critical year before kindergarten are much more likely to reach goals for at-grade-level reading all through school, especially in the third and eighth grades, when state testing occurs.
Adult volunteers will meet with the preschoolers once or twice a week for 40 minutes at a time. The programmed curriculum involves 25 books — kids take home one book for keeps each week — and volunteers read for 15 minutes with one child and then 15 minutes with a second child.
The sessions require virtually no preparation and are ideal for adults who are busy but still want to help the community’s youngsters. The Perry Book Buddy sessions are scheduled to meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:20 a.m. to 10 a.m. in the Shared Visions classroom of the Perry Child Development Center, 920 18th St. in Perry.
Perry’s Book Buddy sessions will begin Oct. 6 and continue through April. A one-hour training class for new volunteers is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 2 from noon to 1 p.m. at the Perry Public Library at 1101 Willis Ave.
Founded in 2002 by Women United and supported by the United Way of Central Iowa, Book Buddy currently serves eight locations in Des Moines. The four Des Moines volunteers who visited Perry shared their experiences and described the rewards of one-on-one tutoring with the preschoolers.
To learn more about the United Way of Central Iowa Book Buddy program, visit the website. For more information about Perry’s Book Buddy or to register for training, contact Rachel at bookbuddy@unitedwaydm.org or 515-554-1417.
Thanks, Jim, for joining us to spread the word on this extremely important program for the kids. It’s a fun and rewarding program for volunteers. I know volunteers in the Perry community will truly enjoy this opportunity. I look forward to meeting those who can take as little as one hour a week to make a difference in the life of a child! Perry ROCKS! Let’s build an awesome team to make this program one of the best in the Book Buddy program!