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CLEARFIELD -- Students at Wasatch Elementary in Clearfield squealed with delight as Clifford the Big Red Dog showed up at a school assembly to commend them for reading.
"I wasn't really good at reading and I couldn't read really fast," said student Dominick Sandberg. "But as the year has passed, I started to read really fast and I passed my goals."
Dominick and a few dozen fellow students take part in KSL's Read Today Project Tutor. Neighborhood volunteers come to the school two days every week to help struggling readers. Tutors like Mary Lynn Hunt already see improvement.
"The reward and progress is amazing," she said.
In this neighborhood, most of the tutors come from the Clearfield Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Stake President Doug Reed has found the program benefits the volunteers almost as much as the students.
It's an investment in the community and it goes on from generation to generation.
–Cheryl Watchek, Big O Tires
"Most of them have stayed from the very beginning; they love coming over here," he said. "Some have been out of work and when they find work, they just keep doing it."
Relationships are also starting to emerge. Many of the reading tutors attended the Wasatch assembly. Students said hello and proudly bragged "that's my tutor."
Clearfield Stake First Counselor Mike Smith noted those relationships spill over throughout the community. "It's a neighborhood project and it benefits people that they see outside of the schools in their neighborhoods," he said.
To help celebrate the school's success, Big O Tires provided a Reader Reward $1,000 worth of reading books for students. Big O representative Cheryl Watchek and Clifford handed out the books.
"It's an investment in the community and it goes on from generation to generation," said Watchek.
To find out more about Project Tutor or to nominate your school for a Read Reward go to Readtoday.com.
E-mail: nwimmer@ksl.com
