As you all know, I love to read. So when I heard about a mentor program called Dive into Reading through Anna Maria Oyster Bar where volunteers work with students on their manners and social skills, as well as their reading, I signed up immediately. I partook in the program as a mentor the summer of 2017 and just signed up to do it again this June! Here’s all the information you need in case you want to volunteer this summer too.

Did you know a majority of students who read below grade level by the time they finish 3rd grade will never graduate and many will end up in juvenile detention centers? The goal of Dive into Reading is to combat this in Manatee County, as well as tackling the “summer slide,” where students stop learning over the summer and have a difficult time getting back into the groove of learning once school starts again in the Fall.

The program started in 2017 by bringing rising 3rd graders from Manatee County to AMOB once a week for four weeks and pairing each student with a volunteer mentor. There, the students receive a hot breakfast courtesy of AMOB while they work on dining manners, social skills, and their reading. Each week, every student gets to take a book home.

This summer, the program is offered at four locations throughout Bradenton and mentors can choose from four different days of the week to volunteer (Tuesday-Friday). The sites offering the program this summer are the South Florida Museum (which has already filled up with volunteers), AMOB Ellenton, AMOB Landside, and Gecko’s on SR70. The program is also expanding this summer by including rising 1st and 2nd graders in addition to 3rd graders. With all of this expansion, over 450 students will benefit from Dive into Reading this June! That means even more volunteers are needed.

All volunteers have to do is attend one training session, and go once a week on your chosen day to your chosen location from 8:30-10:15 a.m. You’ll get paired up with a student and will work with that student every week for the month of June. There are also teacher-coordinators at each location to assist the volunteers with their students. You don’t need to be a teacher or an expert reader to be a mentor. Anyone can volunteer!

The students are tested before the program to gauge improvement and after just the first year, students from the program beat the “summer slide” and showed an increase in reading proficiency! It is incredible what taking two hours out of your week to help local students can do.

When I volunteered with Dive into Reading, I loved seeing the student I was paired with grow each week, not only in his reading skills, but in his social skills as well. We talked about his favorite hobbies and his family and we discussed how to properly eat a meal at a restaurant, something many of these students never get the chance to learn. After we ate, we would listen to a book read aloud and then go off on our own to do some independent reading. He would read his book out loud to me and I helped him where he struggled.

I really formed a bond with my mentee throughout the process and looked forward to going in every week. I wish we could have had even more time together!

If you’re looking for a way to volunteer this summer, I highly recommend signing up as a volunteer for Dive into Reading. The impact you will have on a student’s life is immeasurable.

Here is the link for the Dive into Reading website, a blog post about the first year of the program, and I posted the informational materials below. Check out these resources for even more information and to sign up! You won’t regret it!