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Mentoring Young Readers (In Battle Creek)

Amanda White said her son, Adrian, who turns 6 years old next Wednesday, could read just a handful of words at the start of this school year. Now, the Verona Elementary kindergartener has more than quadrupled his repertoire.

Several of Adrian’s fellow Verona kindergarteners are showing similar improvements thanks partly to a new program that brought a flock of community volunteers to Verona to make stronger readers out of its kindergarteners.


“I think it’s great,” Amanda White, 33, said. “Any time you can get people into the school to help out, it’s great. I’ve seen a tremendous improvement” in Adrian’s reading.


Kim Lehman, the Calhoun Intermediate School District literacy coordinator managing the Verona project, said every kindergartener at the school is currently matched with at least one of 45 volunteer mentors.

The volunteers come from many walks of life. Some are college students and others are local professionals from companies such as the Enquirer and Kellogg Co. Some are retired educators or educators’ spouses. Some are Verona alumni.

http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20120319/NEWS01/303190042/Mentoring-young-readers