West Hills Students Will Travel With Stories

This year in the library, we've not only benefited from having the help of library aides, but also technology aides who work with and learn from our school's Technology Specialist Jovan Bessette. It has been a pleasure to get to know these students, not only in terms of how they help at our school site, but in learning about the work they also do off campus. To me, they are examples of countless other West Hills students, and when I learn about what they manage to squeeze into their lives in addition to all of their formal coursework, I am inspired.

Just yesterday, our tech aide Alex shared an article from a recent issue of the East County Herald that featured his involvement with the Traveling Stories nonprofit organization.

As the 2014-15 president of the West Hills Key Club, Alex connected with Traveling Stories and also coordinated with the Santee Farmers Market in order to establish a StoryTent that the Key Club students now run once a month.

Particularly if you have small kids of your own, you should stop by to support our students in their volunteer efforts. I have gone a couple of times with my own kids, including going yesterday. In the picture below, you can spot Alex in the bright blue shirt, chatting with a parent as her child reads a book. My daughter is in the purple shirt getting read to, and my son is in the gray shirt. As a son of two librarians, he is often appropriately resistant to reading and at first chose to sit it out at the tent. But, before long, he couldn't resist the temptation and picked up a book to read as well.

Extra minutes of reading can make a huge difference. But, more than anything, it is great that our students are making reading fun and something for kids to look forward to. Kudos to Alex and the rest of our school's Key Club members. They are doing great work and make me proud to be a part of this pack!

Alex helping my daughter cash in her Book Bucks for prizes.

p.s. - In preparation for the Story Tent project, the Key Club first collected over 400 books donated by fellow students. I know that they had greatly appreciated the extra support that they received from Randy Cambou in promoting their collection efforts with his classes. This truly has been a communal effort!

 

Check out more West Hills Key Club members reading to kids.

Photo Credit: Emily Moberly

The Santee StoryTent has been a success thanks to our students!

Photo Credit: Alex Sinclair