A new season of a reading-mentoring program for elementary school-age kids is starting up in September at Sarnia’s Central Baptist Church.
Kids’ Konnection was launched earlier this year as a church outreach program to help city children make up for reading skills lost due to disruptions caused by the pandemic.
Marg Johnson, who is leading Kids’ Konnection, said the new sessions begin Sept. 13 and will run Tuesdays from 4 pm to 8 pm
There is room for up to 32 youngsters currently in grades 1 to 6 in the program, where they read aloud to an adult mentor in 30-minute one-on-one sessions held in the gym of the church located on London Road.
That’s an increase in capacity from the maximum of 24 kids the program had space for when it began in March.
Johnson said she added another mentor to the list of volunteers available for the upcoming sessions.
During the first session, the program registered 24 youngsters “and there were 20 kids that stuck it out” until the weekly sessions ended in June, “which is a lot more than I expected,” Johnson said.
“It has really taken off,” she said.
“I honestly think it was the mentors,” made up of senior volunteers, that made it a success, Johnson added.
She recalls the start of the first session when she heard youngsters putting themselves down and telling mentors they couldn’t read.
“It would break your heart,” Johnson said. “And at the end of that very first session, every single kid came up those stairs yacking away to their mentors” and asking, “what are we going to read next week?”
One youngster who arrived in the program in March reluctant to read received a most-improved award at his school in June, she said.
“The kid busted his hump and he’s totally on board now.”
Johnson said the program’s “grandparent” approach to mentoring, “really fit with what the kids needed.”
The new program will offer a total of 12 weekly sessions in three four-week blocks.
Information about how to register is available by emailing Johnson at [email protected].
There is a $25 per pupil cost to register for the first month, and $20 for each of the following two months, she said.
Johnson said following the successful launch this spring, she’s thinking about offering the program to churches outside of Sarnia.