Are students ready for classrooms?

As the summer marches relentlessly toward the start of a new school year, RSVP asks potential individual and corporate volunteers to consider the rewarding experience of helping kids read.

For Victor Florio, of Aston, who reads with kids in grades one to five, the payoff comes at the end of the school year.

“I know we have accomplished something. It’s a feeling ofwellbeing to know these kids have improved,” he said.

An RSVP America Reads volunteer since 1998, he had recently retired from Allied Chemical Corp. when he read that the program was launching in Delaware County and attended a seminar.

“I can do this!” he remembered thinking.

Florio visits students in the Penn Delco and Chichester school districts for two or three hours on a typical day. After conferring with their teacher, he usually sees a succession of students with reading difficulties.

“I read to them, then check their comprehension, ask about the story, see if they can relate it back to me. Too many of these kids don’t get one-on-one reading at home.”

Some 150 Montgomery County and 50 Dela- ware County RSVP volunteers participate in America Reads, which helps kids in grades K to five to read with more confidence.

Another RSVP program, Family Literacy, draws volunteers for 27 Head Start preschool classrooms in Montgomery County. Additional volunteers are being sought for a program at Children’s Village, a preschool in the Chinatown section of Philadelphia. Additional volunteers from an array of corporations and law firms wrap books, decorate tote bags and bookmarks donated to the children and their families. These donations often provide the only books the families own.