
The
students met on Tuesdays and Thursdays to eat lunch and discuss the audio books
they listened to. The program picked up momentum throughout the 2012-2013
school year, and soon, Swisher and Walton needed more audiobooks to feed the
hungry minds of the club members.
Last year, the
duo of teachers was nominated for a 2013 Summer of Sharing donation on
Community Financial’s SummerOfSharing.org
website. When Community Financial team members read about the new audiobook
club and how it was encouraging kids to start enjoying books, Community
Financial awarded them $1,000 for the good they were doing in their school.
Swisher and
Walton used their donation to support the purchase of audiobooks and iPods so
students without their own portable device could participate in the program.
Two of the club members would not have been able to participate without the
donation. “Our audiobook collection has grown to 27 titles now,” Walton said.
“So summer reading can continue, our book collection remains available for
students to checkout online.”
Students
who participated in the newly found audiobook club started listening to books
they never would have considered until fellow students recommended them. A few
of the members had never listened to an audiobook before, and fell in love with
the style of reading immediately.
Sara Roza was one of the founding members of the club.
She enjoyed the club because it gave her an opportunity to discuss her
interests with classmates. "It was pretty cool because it gave me
something to do during lunch,” she said. “We all liked reading and it gave us a
chance to discuss our similar interests and recommend different books to other
students."
Other students like Kyra Frye joined the club because
it gave them an activity outside of the classroom. "I was able to read my
book outside of school too. I was able to download it on my iPod and
listen to it at home when I was bored,” Frye said.
With the help of the Summer of Sharing donation, the
program will be available to 7th grade students as well in the fall
of 2014. The program will keep growing, and more students will have access to
audiobooks.
“This program makes me so excited to bring the joy of
reading to my students,” Swisher said. “Just the other day, I met an
incoming 6th grader and his parents. As a special needs student, he does not
read much in print. But, when I shared the information about our audiobooks
program, his mom was very excited to have him listen to books this summer.”
There are many reasons why Community Financial
continues to bring back the Summer of Sharing campaign, and the Pioneer Middle
School audiobook club is just one example of the good that is happening in our
communities every day.
The Summer of Sharing charitable campaign will run this
year until August 29. We’re giving away $1000 a day for 60 days to encourage
the positive efforts of those in the communities we serve. Nominate a
non-profit, educational, or charitable organization today at www.SummerOfSharing.org.
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