Talya Lattanzio, a senior at St. John Neumann High School, led a team of classmates for a special visit to children at Brightest Horizons in Ft. Myers for K is for Kids.
Jordan Dennis (shown below second from right) later shared how big “kids” are helping little kids through the foundation: “K is for Kids is a unique nonprofit organization helping both kids and our future leaders. Volunteers help engage young readers in a love for reading. Not only are they helping these children, but also earning community service hours and becoming role models to their community. The teens and growing readers both have a blast doing what they love to do.”
Talya Lattanzio with her team of St. John Neumann High students hold up banner at Brightest Horizons. Photo by Ryan Fricke, journalism student at FGCU.
Karen Clawson, founder and executive director of K is for Kids, arrived first with FGCU student Ryan Fricke. Entering the K-5th grade classroom, they were greeted with forty young faces attentively following their every move as they sat “Indian” style on the brightly colored carpet. Baskets of books were unloaded and then each child was given a complimentary copy of the large hardbound book “Catie the Copycat”. The book donations were made possible by a generous grant by its author, Juliana Howard.
While waiting for the teens arrival, two of the oldest students happily volunteered to read Catie’s story to the younger children. Soon little fingers were tracking words as they were spoken and pages were turning. One young boy sat alongside the readers and acted out portions of the story.
Afterwards, children stowed the books in their backpacks and returned for the next round of fun.
An exciting book giveaway ensued: Books that had been selected by the high school students beforehand from the Foundation’s warehouse were spread out on tables so the children could preview them. Then they stood next to the book they had chosen. After a countdown of “5-4-3-2-1” books were quickly picked up, and then the process was repeated.
Armed with new books, the kids enjoyed comparing their choices.
When the high schools students arrived, the children turned their attention to the books the teens had personally selected to read to them. Each teen took a turn reading before passing the book to their classmate.
The children and teens relaxed together afterwards, sharing conversation and common interests.
Teachers were included in the fun as more books were donated to the classrooms so the children could enjoy reading their favorite stories, like the popular “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”, again and again. Additional books were also donated by local authors, like “Carrots for Charlie” by Rhonda Brazina and Ida Margolis.
Photo courtesy of K is for Kids Foundation
By the time the teens departed, it was difficult deciding which “kids” had the most fun!
Ryan Fricke, FGCU journalism major, shoots the video about the teens’ mission to encourage reading amongst young students. The video was entered into the iWitness video contest by the SJN students as part of their history class project.
[To view the video of the special visit produced by Florida Gulf Coast University journalism major Ryan Fricke by clicking here http://youtu.be/CHFo-EJkzzU]