Teach a child to read and you give them a lifetime of opportunities.
That's the goal of all the volunteers at the Next Door Foundation. Shannon Sims and Charles Benson got the chance to read to kids Thursday.
The kids love it. Just ask retired kindergarten teacher Michele Hoffman. She's been a volunteer reader for about a year now.
"It's extremely important for them to have one-on-one reading time with adults and other readers for them to get that exposure of books," Hoffman said.
The Read For Me program has been around Milwaukee for 25 years. Its success depends on volunteers willing to spend a couple of hours to read to kids.
"They just love it as you saw, lots of smiles," said Max Seigle at Next Door, "They're really engaged, it's a positive experience for our kids."
It's not just a chance to read to children and watch them get excited about books, Next Door gives away about 100,000 books a year to the kids.
"Children get to come to our libraries throughout the year and take a book home at least once a month to build their home library and advance their literacy skills at home," Seigle said. "So it's a continuation of the education there."
