Operation:Outreach students from Barron Collier High and Gulf Coast High visited youngsters at the Boys & Girls Club of Collier County to deliver books and read stories.
It was tough telling who was having the most fun!
by Oscar Santiago Torres, FGCU Intern, K is for Kids
December 9th, 2015
Children walk and chatter as they move in different directions of the Boys & Girls Club of Collier County building. Some run and chortle. Others sit on carpets in their classrooms listening to stories read by student leaders from K is for Kids Foundation.
Once reading time is over, children who wear cherry-red, baby-blue or crackling-canary polo shirts walk over to tables to choose new books to take home and keep.
Meet Tomas Justiz. He is one of the co-chairs leading a team of 14 high school students participating in the annual Operation: Outreach Holiday Book Giveaway. Operation: Outreach is a youth-leadership club at local high schools with the motto “Climb higher. Help others.” With just two days before Winter Break, the student leaders are there to encourage the first graders and Kindergarteners to read more during the holidays.
“I believe that we created many avid readers on this trip,” said Justiz, a Barron Collier High School sophomore [shown above at far left]. “I cannot express the importance of starting readers off at a young age. The more books one reads the better their command of the English language, or any language for that matter, will be.”
Justiz is also one of the students who helped select the books from K is for Kids’ warehouse. Customers of Barnes & Noble Booksellers at the Waterside Shops donated the books for this event. Each child also took home “Freddie’s Friends” and “Annie’s Shoes” by local children’s book author, Ellen Simmons Myer.
“Choosing books for the children was some of the most fun I’ve had volunteering. I hesitate to even call it work,” he said.
Cameryn Anthony, a junior at Gulf Coast High School, also co-chaired the event.
Anthony remembers being a Kindergartener at Seagate Elementary School. She said she still goes back to that classroom at least twice a year to visit her teacher and read to the children.
“Some kids don’t even own one book at home and also can barely read,” Anthony said. “I feel like a great person when I read to kids because I like giving back to the community, and reading to this wonderful group of kids is an awesome way to do that.”
The student leaders also talked about the challenges they faced organizing the event.
“What I have taken away from this is the lesson that even if everything does not go perfectly, it is through creative leadership or possibly even mistakes that the event seems perfect to those who participate in it,” Justiz said.
Anthony recognizes that leading a group takes a bit of love, too.
“I understand that you must love what you do in order for a group to run smoothly and be efficient,” Anthony said. “Because I enjoy helping my community, kids, and reading, I had a blast.”
Justiz, Anthony and the other 14 members will soon take on a much larger leadership project when they participate in the 4th annual K is for Kids’ Teen Fashion Show. The event brings together students of all ages from across Collier County. In collaboration with Collier County Public Schools and Barron Collier High School, the event will be held on Feb. 7, 2015 in Barron Collier High’s auditorium.
For now, the two leaders will focus on encouraging children to read more.
As Justiz said, “I believe that this is so important because I have found in my sixteen years, though they may be short, that communication is one of the most important skills a person can have and is one of the hardest to perfect.”
To learn more about K is for Kids Foundation, visit www.kisforkids.org or call 239.596.KIDS (5437), and to learn more about the Boys & Girls Club of Collier County, visit www.bgccc.com or call (239) 325-1700.
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Oscar Santiago Torres is a senior at Florida Gulf Coast University majoring in journalism. He is currently serving as an intern Business Administration/ Public Relations for K is for Kids. Connect with Oscar at osacrsantiago-torres.com.