4-H Members Join Community Effort to Promote Literacy
Grant County 4-H’ers are helping prepare preschoolers to succeed in school.
For the last five years, 4-H’ers have been participating in the Book Buddies program – where middle- and high-school students read to preschool children to help them develop a lifelong love of reading and learning.
The program was established a few years earlier through the Communities In School Inc. (CIS) of Grant County, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping children succeed in school.
Each week during the school year, senior citizens, youth, and local business people volunteer to read age-appropriate books to 4-year-olds.
The 4-H’ers are responsible for one session each month. In addition to reading to the children, they show the youngsters how to make healthy snacks, such as trail mix or fruit shish kababs.
“The children really get excited when the 4-Her’s come to the program. They know there will be nutritious snacks, books, and interactions with the 4-H’ers,” said Judy Alig, director of CIS.
Another bonus to the program is that the preschoolers get to keep the books and build a home library.
Mary Sullivan, K-State Research and Extension agent in Grant County, works with the student volunteers. She helped the students write the Learn and Serve mini grant (from the Kansas Volunteer Commission, Kansas State Department of Education) that helps pay for the books.
“It’s a wonderful learning experience for the students,” said Sullivan. “We tried to divide up the duties among the 4-H clubs, but some of the 4-H’ers enjoy it so much they want to come every time.”
The students help promote the event by setting up the Book Buddies booth at the Fairy Tale Fair – a community literacy event – at the beginning of the school year. They also help coordinate the program, making sure that there are appropriate books and snacks and at least one reader for every two preschoolers.
Sullivan said the schools have been very cooperative. If possible, the student readers get out of school a few minutes early to prepare for the arrival of the eager preschoolers.
Grant County has an emerging Hispanic population. Census data for the county from 2000 show that English is not the primary language spoken in nearly 30 percent of homes. The Book Buddies program uses some bilingual books, but the volunteers read to the children in English to prepare them for school.
The Anderson family has a long history with the Book Buddies program. The two youngest – Timothy and Rachel – were read to as 4- year-olds. Now they are old enough to be in 4-H, and they get to participate with their older siblings as readers.
The Andersons are homeschooled. The 4-H program offers them established, quality programs and the opportunity to interact with other youth.
Mary Sullivan
620-356-1721
^In the photo: Grant County 4-H members read to 4-year-olds to help them prepare for school. The 4-H'ers applied for grant funds to purchase books.
