The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Generations bridged through reading
Children and senior citizens were united in their love of reading July 27 at the first Senior Reading Buddies program at the Lorain Public Library System’s Avon Branch, 37485 Harvest Drive.
By bringing the youth and senior citizens together, the Library hopes to instill a love of reading in the youngsters, according to Kelsey DeCoste, a library associate who works at both the Avon Branch and the North Ridgeville Branch.
“The overall goal of senior reading buddies is to engage children in literacy experiences and reading in a very non-threatening environment of just working one-on-one with the senior citizen,” DeCoste said. “Young and old coming together and sharing a reading experience together.”
DeCoste said that the senior citizens had volunteered to read to the children, and one used her skills in the kitchen to make the program a success.
“A lot of them are volunteers,” she said. “Most of them do live in our city and some of them are Friends of the Avon Library. We had one woman who actually made cookies for the whole event. So, we have great support in terms of our friends of the library.”
Jean Hanson, 72, of Avon, was reading “Dixie Wins the Race” to Ella Crytzer, 6, also of Avon.
“I just happened to see
“Young and old coming together and sharing a reading experience together.”
— Kelsey DeCoste
the announcement,” Hanson said, describing how she came to volunteer for the program. “I’m a regular borrower here at the Library and I saw that they needed volunteers, so I said ‘hey I like to do this, and I miss my grandkids.’”
When asked why events like these are important, Hanson deferred to Ella.
“Because it’s nice,” she said.