“There’s so many sweet smiles. I just love that. They come and they sit right next to you and they want to turn the pages, or have you turn the pages. It’s just all spontaneous and it’s all been good. I feel lucky that I can do it.”

LISA BARGER

Volunteer Focus: SMART Reader program
Blazers Boys & Girls Club
Retired legal assistant at the District Attorney’s office

 

Tell me about what you do as a volunteer?

I volunteer an hour a week at Blazers Club. It’s kind of cool because it’s a pilot program.  We just started in March so I was at the beginning of that which is fun. We go in the afternoon for an hour and they come in for half hour intervals and we sit and either read to the children or they read to us, whichever they feel most comfortable doing.

How’s it been so far?

It has been great. It has been what I thought it would be. It’s so much fun. There are 6,7,8 maybe 9 year olds and when they come in it’s so cute. They see all the books spread out on the table and their eyes light up. I love that part. A lot of times they want to sit and talk for a little bit before they start to read and that’s great. We learn about each other. Then we start in reading. I ask if they want to read to me or if they would like me to read to them and we go from there. A half hour goes by really quickly.”

How has volunteering impacted you personally?

It’s been wonderful for me because I’ve always wanted to work with kids and I love reading and I love to read to kids. Always have. But because I worked full time all those years it was really hard for me to do this type of volunteering. So I knew as soon as I thought about retiring this is what I wanted to do.

It makes you feel good. The kids are happy. They wanna be there. And they have such energy and innocence. That’s the best part.

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