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Published Saturday, October 11, 2008 in Education

Unity Elementary program promotes the joy of reading

By Winston Skinner

The Times-Herald

Some real people went to Unity Elementary School in Luthersville on Oct. 3 and read stories to children in classrooms throughout the school.

Tabatha Ford, parent involvment coordinator for Unity's pre-kindergarten program, coordinated Real People Read, an annual event that brings people from the community into the school to read. The goal is to reinforce efforts to teach children to read and to enjoy reading. Having people the children known in other ways -- business leaders, family members, friends from church -- also helps youngsters see the importance of reading.

"There's not a greater gift you can gift than to give a child a love of reading," Tracy Sims, principal at Unity, told the volunteers in the cafeteria prior to the RPR event. The school's Parent-Teacher Association served a continental breakfast to the volunteers.

Youngsters were visibly excited as people came to read. Some brought books from home, while others grabbed books from the library's collection. A few readers even came dressed in costume as a character from a book.

Ginger Calabro brought a book that had been given to her by her mother. Carol Lane, Meriwether County's school superintendent, wore fall colors and read "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."

Ford said Real People Read has been a success at Unity over the years. "Each year our numbers just grow," she said.

She said there were "almost 70 readers" for RPR this year. "We have a lot more parents reading this year," she said.

There were people with many professions and occupations who took time to read to the Unity students.

A large contingent of readers were retired teachers from Meriwether County. "That was the best thing," Ford said. "Every retired teacher that I called said, 'Yes, I will be glad to come.'"

The response from the retired educators "was just awesome," Ford said.

Unity's book fair ended on RPR day. Two of the readers -- James Woods and Tommy Adams -- won gift certificates that entitled them to shop for books and other goodies at the Scholastic Book Fair in the media center.