That is why the volunteers of the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival took a road trip to the Summer Reading Buddies program at the Yonkers Riverfront Library on Wednesday, July 16th.
The Summer Reading Buddies program is run by JCY-Westchester Community Partners, a Division of Family Service Society of Yonkers, and helps almost 300 children each day maintain the reading skills they learned throughout the year. The students are paired with a mentor and they read books together from their summer reading lists. Younger children take part in a ‘read aloud’ and parents are engaged in workshops that support their children.
A group of eleven volunteers from the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival mentored children throughout the morning. Volunteers included high school students, a college student, former teachers, and members of the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival organizing committee.
The premise of the JCY-Westchester Partners program is to help kids with their reading skills and in addition, give volunteers a positive experience. “The program is also about engaging volunteers” says Recruiting and Public Relations Manager Randee Ginsberg. It was indeed heartwarming to see our younger volunteers willingly giving up a summer morning to help other kids who need it.