Reading to Roos
A recent book giveaway at Winfield elementary school in Corning was just a little different. “Not a single child showed indifference to his gift,” says retired Winfield teacher Barb Hampson. That may not seem too remarkable, but it has taken more than two decades of work to achieve this outcome.
Winfield has a high percentage of low-income families. Early on in her teaching career, Hampson observed that most of her students didn’t see much reading in their homes. In fact, many had no books at all until the state-sponsored Parents as Reading Partners program she helped found at Winfield began giving them away in 1986. Twelve years ago the program folded into the Rolling Readers USA Read Aloud and Book Giveaway program, a nationwide children’s literacy initiative. When Rolling Readers cancelled all its chapters, Barb didn’t let the ball drop for Winfield students. She rolled it right into the newly named Reading to Roos program in 2007 and has been coordinating the program’s volunteers ever since.
“Our volunteers are lifelong readers who feel compelled to pass their love of books along to others,” explains Hampson. “They read to groups of students for thirty minutes each week and look forward to it so much, I have very little turnover from year to year.” What drives these generous readers? The belief that a lack of literacy dashes hopes and dreams. “Once a person becomes grounded in literacy,” says Hampson “he becomes free to take his unique place in the work world, in the community, as a parent and in the wonderful world of books.”
