Reading Partners Aim To Help Hundreds Of West Baltimore Kids With Literacy Skills
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Kids in west Baltimore are getting a lesson that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives.
Thanks to a non-profit organization, and a group of dedicated volunteers, the kids are learning and experiencing the value of reading through a whole new set of eyes and ears.
Inside the Sandtown-Winchester Achievement Academy, a sweet young reading tutor at the age of 73 is drafting experience with readers of all ages.
Former Johns Hopkins Hospital worker, Becki Proctor, drives two hours every Tuesday and Wednesday to once again serve the community.
"I find this the most fun because I love children's books and I love reading to kids," Proctor said.
So much so, she finds it hard to stop.
Many kids down there don't have books at home and they don't have anybody who reads to them. So, Proctor does it for them, line by line.
Planting the proverbial seed into these little minds just how important reading really is, while also asking herself, a Harford County native, a question of her own.
"The kids don't have all the opportunities we do out where we are, and I wanted to know what I could do to help the situation. I'm retired. I'm so old, so what can I do?" she asked.
So, she joined the Reading Partners Tutoring Program, a national non-profit, after learning about it on Facebook from her daughter- who just happens to be a schoolteacher.
The rest is history.
"It's worth it. It really is worth it. It's like all of a sudden something clicks and they're reading," Proctor said.
This school year, the Reading Partner Reading Center's goal is to serve 600 students in over a dozen schools. Supported by the Baltimore City Schools, they want to work with 750 volunteers.
