Saluting readers

Breakfast honors literacy program

The United Way of Broward County, in partnership with the School Board of Broward County and Children’s Movement of Florida, recently hosted the fifth annual ReadingPals Program Appreciation Breakfast at the Signature Grand in Davie.

ReadingPals is an initiative that was introduced in 2012 by United Way as a means to help improve the reading levels of elementary students.

Nowin its sixthyear, theprogram hashelpedscreen, engage, train, and deploy hundreds of reading coaches within the community that spend weeks reading and mentoring individual students for an hour at a time in the classroom. Booksarealsoprovided to the students throughout the course of the program to encourage home reading.

“We've seen first-hand the impact a weekly reading session can have on a child's life,” said Kathleen Cannon, president and CEO of UnitedWay. “It's all about inspiring our youngest by allowing them to experience a bigger world through books and personal interactions.”

The number of volunteers has grown over time from just 105 to over 900, with more than 22,000 hours of service donated over the years.

Judith Kreitzer is one of the volunteers in the program whose time and efforts were celebrated during thebreakfast. Kreitzer joinedduring a time when she was looking for a way to give back to the community after her child left for college. She hascometo see it asmorethanjusta reading programand away to mentor young students.

“It isamazinghowgreat it feels to be a ReadingPal and see your student growover the schoolyear,” said Kreitzer.“Itissoexcitingwhennonreaders start reading and then gain fluency and confidence in their reading.”

Besides celebrating the fifth anniversary of ReadingPals, as well as the volunteers that make the program possible, the breakfast also served to mark the launch into the 2017-2018 school year.

The initiative started just with three elementary schools and will nowbe available in a total of20sites. This will see thenumberof students reached increase, which has gone from167 during the first year to 378 during 2016-2017.

“Our strength in numbers shows the power of this program,” said Cannon. “We could have not reached this great number of students without the support of the community.”

junreyes@sun-sentinel.com