During the early weeks of June, our FUMCFW volunteers joined with local college interns to serve elementary students who, even while on summer break, are not taking a break from reading! These students, ranging in age from kindergartners through fifth graders are instead spending their days at Project Transformation, a summer day camp that provides plenty of fun and plenty of reading — which for many of the kids is truly a reading and learning game-changer.
To make this world-opening program happen, the college interns run the program from 9:00 am – 3:00 pm each day. In addition to that, volunteers from local churches go for two hours each day to listen to the kids read and to help them advance or keep up with the skills they already have.
This year we had thirty-four FUMCFW volunteers who added their time and energy to this worthwhile project, according to Charme Robarts, Community Advocate and Project Transformation Liaison. Special thanks for this transformative work go to: Julie Fagan, Julie Compton, Olivia Perkins, Brian and Felicia Eaton, Jill and Adam Chittum, Mike Marshall, Linda Murphy, Nancy Fisher, Nancy Phillips, Matthew Phillips, Leann Carrol, Nancy Froman, Gay Ingram, Charme Robarts, Rhonda Gaber, Maxine Harrington, Patty Andrews, Kay Baker, Martha McMullen, Marianne Wells, Patricia Gieger, Pam Thomas, Debbie Manning, Debbie Griffin, Kim Gudimetla, John Howard, Mary Fuller, Tom McDermott, Cat Helm, Jenny Johnson, and Caron Quevreaux, and Whitney Lefevre.
“In a busy and troubled world with so much emphasis on what divides us, it is encouraging to see generations of people gathered around reading,” Charme says. “The children read to get better at it, the college students read to learn how to teach reading, and the rest of us volunteers read to be a part of the effort,” she adds. “Allof us get transported for that brief window of time into stories and images that awaken our imagination of what a big wonderful world we share.”
To learn more about Project Transformation or to be sure you are on the list for next year, please contact Charme (crobarts@myfumc.org).
