March 6, 2007

Easy Readers

Reading to Kids

Volunteering always sounds like a good idea. Until you show up.

Clean Up the Coast Day should have been called Pick Razors out of the Sewer Day. “Plant an urban garden” loosely translates to “remove broken glass and rusted barbed wire from vacant lot.”

But reading to kids? You can’t go wrong there.

One Saturday a month, about 300 volunteers gather at five elementary schools near downtown to get students, who are primarily from non-English speaking homes, excited about reading.

New volunteers get a quick training session before they break off with students. After an hour and a half of reading aloud, there’s a brief discussion of the story, then some fun with arts and crafts. (Grace Lin’s The Year of the Dog followed by an origami lesson, for example.)

Afterward, volunteers meet at El Cholo for free appetizers and pats on the back for a job well done.

No tetanus shot required.

For more information, call 310-479-7455 or go to readingtokids.org.