Reading program encourages kids to have their own books

To encourage young students to read and in an early start to National Reading Month, Assistance League(R) of Houston volunteers and three OfficeDepot OfficeMax volunteers read to kids at the end of February.  Besides giving them books to take home, volunteers also played games at Tuttle Library on Houston’s east side.  Half Price Books donated 100 books.  This is part of National Assistance League’s Action Week program in which the Houston chapter put books in the hands of children in order improve literacy.  “We have a literacy program every year in addition to reading in Our Head Start Readers program at Pugh Elementary,” said Jennie Hampton, Houston’s Action Week chair.  “Statistics show that one out of six children who do not read at age level by the end of third grade will not graduate from high school.  And the fact is that 65-percent of American fourth graders don’t read at a proficient level.”

Volunteering with Jennie were Jan Cobler, Nancy Synott and Martha Whitley.