Volunteers share love of literacy with Kent students

There’s never a lack of activity at an elementary school, but the morning of Sept. 12, the first and second grade pod of Daniel Elementary was particularly buzzing.

Instead of a normal Friday, a small army of volunteers from businesses around the area and were spread out throughout the classrooms, sprawled on the floors and stuffed into half-size chairs to read to small groups of children from a stack of brand-new, donated books.

“All you could hear was giggles,” Principal Janet Muldrow said.

The volunteer readers were part of the Page Ahead program, which donates new books to first- and second-graders and encourages volunteers to come into schools to read to the children. The event also was part of the United Way Day of Caring.

In addition to the reading session, each child got to keep the book of his or her choice.

According to Daniel Elementary Instructional Coach Lien Le, the program helps the school ensure that each child has something at home to read.

“Our goal is to provide a rich literacy environment to the students,” she said. “This is one way for us to give books to the kids so they can start a library at home.”

At Daniel, nearly 75 percent of the students are on the free and reduced lunch program, meaning the gift of books is even more special.

“For some of these kids, these are the first books they ever own,” Le said. “It’s very, very special.”

But beyond the books themselves, Le and Muldrow said it was important for the students to see adults who aren’t teachers or parents reading and talking about the importance of reading.

“Modeling good reading skills teaches our kids how to become proficient readers from the beginning,” Muldrow said.

Brought together by the Page Ahead program, a non-profit organization that focuses on literacy and providing books to students, the volunteers came from several Puget Sound businesses, including Microsoft, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Boeing and Bank of America.

According to Page Ahead Community Outreach Coordinator LeAnne Chow, the program has given away more than 1.7 million books over the past 18 years.

“This year we’ll give away 162,000 books to 55,000 kids,” Chow said.

Volunteer Tere Runkel of Bank of America is a Kent resident who said she loves to interact with youngsters and share books with them.

“It’s very important to sit with a child, read, watch their expression and ask questions,” she said, adding that she likes to “watch the magic.”

“And they have amazing answers,” she said.

Microsoft volunteer Jeannette Jarvis brought her team to read to the kids because, she joked, she was making sure to train the next generation of Microsoft engineers.

“We all value education and we know kids that read succeed,” she said.

Second-grade teacher Sharon Van Zandt said she welcomes both the books and the readers into her classroom.

“These children need books to read and it’s very, very exciting for them,” she said. “Anything to get these little people reading is on the right side.”

Each child got a book to keep for themselves, as well as the attention of the volunteers, who all agreed they got something from the kids as well.

“It’s always so much fun,” said volunteer and Page Ahead board member Sean O’Neill, adding “I would not be the person I am today without books.”

“It’s so rewarding,” agreed Jarvis. “Every time I do one of these events I walk away with a smile in my heart all day long.”

“It’s awesome,” Muldrow said. “We’ll be doing this for a long time.”

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For more information about the Page Ahead program, visit www.pageahead.org. Page Ahead is also hosting the Dish Up Literacy program Sept. 18. Participating restaurants, including Duke’s Chowder House at Kent Station, will donate 20 percent of the day’s proceeds to the Page Ahead program. For a complete list of participating restaurants visits www.dishupliteracy.org.