Help Kids Read

Or, more to the point, help kids learn the value of reading.

I'm not prone to public service announcements on my blog, but I'm making an exception this time.

I've been involved in this project before - it is a fun way to spend an afternoon...
And it is in danger of cancellation due to too few participants.

If you read for any reason in your job, then you have something to offer the kids and you WILL have a good time doing it....

Read on, what follows is from the organizer - I'll have more to add at the end.

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It is that time of year, some of you have helped out in the past with this. We are really struggling this year to find volunteers so are casting the net as wide as possible.

The Camp Read program occurs at an inner city school in Surrey where folks come in from the community and read stories to the elementary kids. A lot of these kids come from pretty rough backgrounds or are brand new immigrants to Canada, so they need to have some positive role models.

It is a really relaxed and simple community event. You simply come, have lunch, read a couple of stories to a class of kids (you can pick the grades/ages you would like), they ask you a few questions (supposedly about how you use reading in your daily life... but more often it is just crazy stuff kids ask). All in all it takes just a couple hours.

We are in need of around 20 people still, so it is quite a shortfall this time.... so if you know folks who might be interested we can use all the help we can. This school has a very diverse population so it is especially great to have volunteers of various ethnicities to show positive role models of all types. Kids are still talking about Sewa coming in his fireman's uniform last year as they hadn't seen an East Indian fireman before and unfortunately a lot of them in this area don't get to see positive role models that look like them and they can relate to.

The details are:

Thursday 29th April
12-2pm

Info Sheet:
Lena Shaw Elementary is having "Camp Read" on Thursday April 29th, 2010. We are asking good role models from the community to volunterr their time and visit Lena Shaw for an afternoon of reading to students and talking about how reading is important to their lives. We are asking for volunteers to arrive at the school between 12:00 and 12:15, and then be available until 2:00pm. The volunteer can bring their own favorite book or let us know if they want one picked out for them.

Lena Shaw Elementary School
142500 100A Avenue,
Surrey, BC

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If this sounds like something you would like to give your time to, please let me know and I will connect you with the organizer.

If you are concerned about getting to the school, I have been assured that they will be more than happy to arrange transport from the SkyTrain to the school.

I will see you there... RIGHT!??

- Kennedy