Sharing the love of reading

For the last four years, members of the Marshall Adult Community Center have read to grade school students

By Jodelle Greiner

MARSHALL - Five senior citizens showed third, fourth and fifth-graders at Samuel Lutheran School how reading can give enjoyment throughout your life when they read "The Tiger's Whisker" and "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" on Thursday.

Monica Hoof, Beverly Butman, Drusilla Pedersen, Melba Pack and Mary Henderson each voiced different characters in the stories.

"I like the expressions they did in the story and how they talked," said Dylan Criquet-Danielson, a fifth-grader in teacher Amy MacArthur's room.

"What I liked about the first story is you learned if you're nice to someone, they'll be nice back to you," said Matthew Onken, a third-grader, of "The Tiger's Whisker."

"I liked it because it's something I hadn't heard," said Allison Connot, a third-grader.

"I liked the second story ("Goldilocks") because I liked how they read it," said Kristina Hegberg, a third-grader.

"I liked the questions at the end," said MacKenzie Schultz, fifth-grader.

After reading the stories, the students got to ask questions from the readers and the kids showed them the books they are currently reading.

"Academically, they see even older senior citizens enjoy reading and sharing with the students," said MacArthur. "Socially, it gives them an opportunity to interact with different age groups."

The event was organized by Barb Lipinski, coordinator of the Adult Community Center. She said the ACC has been reading to Marshall students in kindergarten through fifth grade for about four years. Lipinski choses the books by the number of characters and the grade level. "We try to gear it to the appropriate age level," she said.

"I've had no problem getting volunteers, once they learned it's the thrill of sharing the love of reading," Lipinski said.

"I do it because I like to instill a love of reading in kids and to show them we love to read at our age and how much they can gain by it," said Butman.

"I've always enjoyed being with the kids because my grandkids are so far away," said Henderson, who mentors at West Side Elementary.