The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Library honors readers
UPPER MERION » The Upper Merion Township Library hosted its annual Reading Buddy Celebration on the evening of May 21, 2018. The event honored all of the Big and Little Reading Buddies who actively participated in this literacy program during the 2017-18 school year. Over 100 people came out to join in the celebration.
The Reading Buddy Program was established by the Upper Merion Township Library over 19 years ago as a volunteer, community service effort to partner intelligent, older students (in grades 5 – 12) with motivated, emerging readers (in Kindergarten – 2nd grade) who could
use some extra practice and encouragement with their reading. The older students meet with their assigned little buddy weekly one-on-one in the library for 30 minutes to practice reading aloud, work on pronunciation and comprehension skills, and enjoy books together. The program has really taken off in the past few years in Upper Merion. There are currently about 64 pairs (or 128 kids) that meet weekly as Reading Buddies to read together at the library throughout the school year and summer.
This Reading Buddy Celebration provided a chance to officially thank all of our Big Buddies who have made the choice to spend their free time helping to instill a love of reading, books and the library in younger children within their community.
The Big Reading Buddies who were honored for their volunteerism were: Raizel Alli, Aksash Aruapalli, Adalyn Becker, Adam Belkin-Rosen, Meeval Biju, Anna Bobok, Lindsey Botzum, Tejal Bnor, Fatima Browne, Roma Chaturvedi, Caitlin Cifaldi, Julia Curcio, Amy Dallas, Ali Galal Dawood, Addie Eaton, Allison Eck, Carolyn Eck, Audrey Ehrlich, Nebiyou Elias, Daniel Fotzeu, Manuella Fotzeu, Alyssa Galban, Meghan Galban, Claire Gardiner, Alina Hernandez, Bryanna Hoisington, Ankita Kalasabail, Jenna Kravitz, Kathrine Kyrylchuk, Joy Lu, Bhavishya Malla, Aishani Mehta, Saloni Mehta, Noelle Micolucci, Shriyans Mishna, Maha Moghal, Shiza Moghal, Devina Mondal, Kelly Moore, Brooke Myers, Momo Nakamura, Nana Nakamura, Sean Pearson, Trinity Pike, Alex Piscopo, Amanda Piscopo, David Rendon, Laura Rendon, Sierra Ronollo, Ryan Puleo, Aleem Siddiqui, Ashley Sion, Tyler Sion, Srisha Srinivasan, Nicholas Tran, Rebecca Trang, Kate Wellington, Claire Wilson, Grace Wu, Kevin Wu, Jenna Xue and Maggie Yang.
The celebration also provided an opportunity to recognize all of the library’s Little Buddies who have really improved their reading skills thanks to lots of practice, persistence and patience in working with their big buddy.
The Little Reading Buddies who were recognized for their reading progress were: Saksham Aggarwal, Chase Albert, Dalton Andrews-Darosh, Kylee Andrews-Darosh, Arjun Bajaj, Joseph Becker, Hayden Bowe, Annabelle Burda, Sal Camerote, Alex Carranco-Sandoval, Shravya Chetkuri, Rose Choi, Mark Christian, Nicholas DeSimone, Aishani Dhama, Manogna DiKonde, Noah Dixon, Vyana Gajjar, Giuliana Gallagher, Cecilia Grab, Will Harris, Vansh Jain, Aiden Jei, Joanna KimMaria, Joey Kim-Maria, Sofia Kletsoun, Kaavya Kodiya, Brianna Marczyk, Keya Mehta, Zunaira Momin, Rebecca Montich, Samika Nettem, James Nguyen, Kevin Nguyen, Tyler Nguyen, Sai Tanav Nune, Elif Ozdemir, Soham Parida, Ayaan Patel, Shobhan Perala, Jasmine Phogat, Crystal Qiu, Thiago Quispe-Taco, Vivaan Rajiv, Caleb Reed, Ben Renegar, Teaghan Rudegeair, Ryan Saha, Atharv Shimpi, Abhay Shrestha, Aiden Staller, Devon Staller, Saniya Stone, Aiden Taylor, Nolan Taylor, Samantha Tracy, Yashar Tunagur, Alex Whiteley, Alice Yang, Sophia Yang, Amish Yellapu, Josephina Zelli, Ivan Zhang, and Anna Zheng.
If your child would be interested in volunteering their time to help out as a big buddy or needs help with their reading skills and would like to apply to be a little buddy, please stop into the library to fill out a registration form. For more information on all of the exciting Upper Merion Township Library’s programs, events and Summer Reading Club activities, please call us on (610) 265-4806 or visit our website at http://www.umtownship. org/library
At the end of the celebration as a special treat for all reading buddies, Jinal Patel, Joe Kilroy and the Dunkin Donuts staff held the fourth annual donut decorating contest. Kids let their “creativity run wild” in decorating donuts. The winning entries were 11th grader Laura Rendon’s donut named Cotton Candy Dream and Kindergartener Jasmine Phogat’s donut called Chidi. Their donuts will be recreated and sold this summer at the Dunkin Donuts store on West DeKalb Pike in King of Prussia, PA in honor of the Upper Merion Township Library. Congratulations to all who entered! The library thanks Dunkin Donuts for their continued community partnership and support in Upper Merion.