Thanks, Volunteers, for Helping the Literacy Coalition Build Better Readers

In Palm Beach County, nearly half of all third-grade students read below grade level. To address this issue, the Literacy Coalition works in partnership with the School District of PBC as we recruit, train and support community volunteers to tutor children with very limited reading skills. We have trained a total of 572 volunteers and served 3,338 students since the program began in the Fall of 2014. 

Thanks to all of the volunteers who continue to help the Literacy Coalition’s efforts to build better readers. We thank you for making a difference in the lives of so many children. In the words of Laura Orlove, Reading Coach K-2 and Certified Reading Recovery Teacher at Crosspointe Elementary School, “all the feedback [about the Building Better Readers program] has been outstanding! The children love the program and are getting that much-needed attention. They love all the new books they were given, too! Thank you so much.”

In honor of Volunteer Recognition Month, you can read more about a few of our volunteers:

“Tutoring with the Literacy Coalition . . . has been a joy. It has been thrilling to watch the children slowly gain reading skills they didn’t think they could master.” – Michael Weingarten, Literacy Coalition Volunteer

Michael Weingarten, of Delray Beach, has been a Building Better Readers (BBR) trained tutor since February of 2020 when he began tutoring through our program at Crosspointe Elementary in Boynton Beach.  When schools closed in March 2020, and we began virtual after school tutoring, he was one of the first to volunteer to adapt to our virtual tutoring for delivery of the program. As the Literacy Coalition began offering workshops to help our trained tutors adapt to virtual tutoring, Michael helped the Coalition with the trainings. He’s become our technology expert and has even provided some one-to-one trainings with other volunteers on behalf of the Coalition. Michael is currently tutoring three students at Crosspointe during the school day and one student after school.  Michael started tutoring elementary school students with the Brooklyn College Volunteer Tutoring Program in 1967 and remained with the program, as a trainer, through 1975 while he was teaching English and serving as a crisis counselor at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn (1970-1978). 

Michael shared, “While my children were growing up, reading was an essential part of our day. They saw their parents reading regularly, and every evening ended with two bedtime books for each child (although I can’t guarantee that I was fully awake through the second book for either child). I now have a virtual daily book club with two of my grandchildren (6 and 11). We meet religiously every day from 4-6 p.m. and thoroughly enjoy reading to each other (currently reading…The Mysterious Benedict Society and Winnie the Pooh). Tutoring with the Literacy Coalition, whether in-school, after-school or virtually, has been a joy. It has been thrilling to watch the children slowly gain reading skills they didn’t think they could master. It is, of course, sometimes frustrating, it is often hard work, but it is always rewarding.”

I am thrilled to have found this program at the Literacy Coalition. I can’t wait to get back into the schools this fall.” – Linda Weiss, Literacy Coalition Volunteer

Linda Weiss, of Delray Beach, began volunteering in the Literacy Coalition’s Building Better Readers (BBR) program serving at Orchard View Elementary in Delray Beach in September of 2019 and tutored there until March, 2020 when the schools were closed.  In January of 2020, she began volunteering at the Literacy Coalition’s family literacy program in Delray Beach called Village Readers where she provides after school tutoring. She has continued as a virtual after school tutor both at Village and with BBR.  She is currently tutoring two students after school and one student in the BBR program at Belvedere Elementary, virtually. Linda is one of the Coalition’s technologically inclined volunteers and has helped train other volunteers on Google Meet.  Linda has been an avid reader all her life starting as a young child when she would sneak a flashlight under the covers to read anything from the Bobbsey Twins to 5 Little Peppers to Barbie books! After graduating from the University of Georgia with a degree in Education, she dedicated the next 30 years in academic publishing as a salesperson of textbooks to university professors, managing salespeople and finally selling digital books to librarians at universities, as well as managing others doing the same.  She says, “I have volunteered my time tutoring young children in reading since I was a teenager in Atlanta and I am thrilled to have found this program at the Literacy Coalition. I can’t wait to get back into the schools this fall.”

“It’s just fun. To think that my time I spend with these kids might actually give them a chance in life that they wouldn’t have otherwise had is a bonus.” – Tom Streit, Literacy Coalition Volunteer

Tom Streit, of Jupiter, is the Immediate Past President of the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County Board.  Since joining the Literacy Coalition board in 2011, Tom served as president from 2018-2020 and has co-chaired several events, including the Great Grown-Up Spelling Bee, now The Grand Bee Literary Fun & Games, and LOOP for Literacy. Tom is one of our most successful and involved LOOP volunteers as a team organizer and fundraiser each year. Tom and his wife, Chris, are also active as a trained volunteer reading tutors in our Building Better Readers program serving at Jupiter Elementary. Chris began tutoring in December 2016 and Tom began tutoring in January 2018. They have both adapted from in-person in the classroom to virtually tutoring due to the pandemic. Tom is a retired real estate lawyer, formerly a partner at Akerman LLP. He served two years teaching English as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco and was a social worker and youth counselor before starting law school. Tom says of serving as a Building Better Readers volunteer, “It’s just fun. To think that my time I spend with these kids might actually give them a chance in life that they wouldn’t have otherwise had is a bonus.”

Tom and Chris Streit help the Coalition celebrate our 30th Anniversary in 2019.