The El Dorado Kiwanis Club needed a creative solution to continue their reading program for El Dorado kindergartners in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As many organizations and businesses have throughout the pandemic, the Kiwanis Club decided to take the program virtual while simultaneously expanding their reach from 2020.
Last year, individual Kiwanis club members went to Northwest Elementary School and read in-person to the school’s kindergartners, Kiwanis President Jaren Books said.
“We wanted to carry that [project] over. This year, since we couldn’t go in person, we had members record themselves reading the books and the school district played it for the kids,” Books said.
The club expanded the purview of this year’s program, including each El Dorado School District kindergarten class.
Kiwanis members recording themselves reading the book Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss and uploaded the video to Google Drive or Dropbox. Teachers were then able to choose a reading and present it to their class throughout the first week of March.
“The kids loved it. We hope to be able to read in-person again next year, because the kids love that. Last year we wore Dr. Seuss hats, and they made a big deal out of it at the school. Kids always enjoy having visitors at school,” Books said.
Books said Kiwanis officers worked with ESD literacy chair Jeannie Strother to coordinate the project and ensure that each class was able to participate.
Another initial aspect of the plan was to deliver 350 copies of Fox in Socks to the schools, allowing the students to read along during the virtual readings.
For the 2020 program, the Kiwanis club delivered one copy of a book to each classroom and looked to expand that this year as well.
Possibly due to the large number of books to be delivered, the copies have still not arrived as of this week.
Books said the Kiwanis club still plans to make the deliveries to the schools once the books arrive.
Books said the project is part of the Kiwanis International brand campaign “Kids Need Kiwanis”