MP volunteer reading program shows no signs of stopping

By Bryce Kelly, Mt. Pleasant News

It has been roughly two years since members of the Mt. Pleasant First United Methodist Church have been actively reading to local elementary school children, and volunteers say they aren?t going to stop something that is already working so well.

Members of the Mt. Pleasant First United Methodist Church have been participating in the ?Change a Child?s Story? program, a statewide initiative within the Iowa Conference of the United Methodist Church, to read 2,000 hours or more to local elementary-age children over a two-year period.

Although the church will soon reach their hourly reading goal and will have donated well over 850 books over the past two years, volunteers say they are still committed to continuing with their volunteerism ? making the local church one of the few in the state to extend the two-year program indefinitely, according to the volunteers.

?We have decided to donate books and donate our time to local kids in our community in various capacities, and we plan to continue as long as we have the volunteers and resources to do so,? said program volunteer, John Rode. ?We have purchased, in just a year and a half, $15,000 worth of books to give out and read to kids. And we just placed another sizable order for more books.?

The goal of the program is to increase the overall child literacy rates in Iowa, a cause that has been championed by the Iowa Methodist bishop. According to research done by the Iowa Conference of the United Methodist Church, roughly 25 percent of Iowa?s fourth-grade students read below the state reading proficiency level.

As part of the program, volunteers visit classrooms periodically throughout the school year, as classroom schedules allow, reading books along with children. Children who read with a volunteer receive their very own book by the end of the school year. Books have also been donated to children via the Mt. Pleasant Fellowship Cup, Henry County Health Center and Kindergarten Round Up to name a few.

For volunteers Martha Mabeus, Rachel Beatty, Sue King and Beverly Hucker, being a part of the program has been a blessing. These ladies, along with Rode, are part of a group of roughly 15 church volunteers in the program.

?I feel like what small time I give is minimal to me but is hopefully very beneficial to the children,? said King, saying she has been impressed by how much the children improve in their reading skills as the year has progressed.

Hucker says that reading is a part of lifelong learning, and that many of the children she has worked with have started to pass on their passion for reading to their siblings or their parents at home.

?It was wonderful to see how excited kids would get to see us every time we show up,? she said. ?They clearly wanted to read.?

According to several teacher testimonials submitted to the church, since the volunteers have started coming in to the classroom, the class? average spelling and vocabulary test scores have improved. Teachers have also reported a greater appreciation and excitement to read among students who struggled in the areas of reading and English prior to being paired with a volunteer.

Moving ahead with the program, church volunteers say they are looking at ways to partner with other local organizations over the summer months to continue reading to children. Rode also says the group is looking for new avenues to distribute books to children in need in the community.

?We have all seen the positives of this program, and I don?t think any of us would say it?s a waste of our time,? he said, referencing the other volunteers. ?Bettering the lives of children and encouraging them is what we all love to do.?