To meet and surpass their reading goals for the year, Sally Mauro Elementary is seeking volunteers to come and read with individual students during school hours. Helper City Mayor Lenise Peterman sat down with Castle Country Radio to discuss the program and its benefits for the community.

“Blake Allen is a wonderful principal down at Sally Mauro, and they’re trying to get ahead of their reading goals and objectives for the year. So they’re being super proactive,” explained Peterman.” We did this a few years ago, as we were coming out of COVID, we found our second graders were falling behind because of inadvertent home schooling, as well as teachers wearing masks, making it so they couldn’t see the pronunciation of words and so on. It was so successful that I think he said, ‘ Hey, let’s do it again and make sure we’re meeting our reading objectives.’”

Volunteers will come in during school hours to read with the students, with the program running from January to May.

With the origin out of the way, Peterman spoke on the benefit she sees in the program for students and volunteers alike,” it activates, you know, retired people. It engages people who maybe have the bandwidth to sit down one-on-one with a child and to help them read. So it’s a two-way street and definitely a win-win, both for the child who has the experience with the adult to improve their reading skills. So again, super excited to reactivate this program and to help our kids be the best they can be.”

To participate in the program, volunteers must pass a background check from the Carbon School District. The checks are by appointment only. To schedule a check, call the Carbon School District Office at (435) 637-1732 and select option eight when prompted.

In closing, the Mayor shared,” Just get out and let’s help our kids. They need it. And we should all be involved because they’re our future.”

For more information or to volunteer, either call (435) 472-5311 or email andersonkr@carbonschools.org.