SMART Seeks Volunteers for the 2014-15 School Year

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Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Dawn Myrah, GoLocalPDX Guest Contributor

SMART (Start Making A Reader Today), the statewide early literacy nonprofit organization, just kicked off their program for the year and they are in the midst of a volunteer recruitment push, particularly for the East Portland area (Troutdale, Gresham and outer SE Portland). 

Volunteers are critical to SMART’s ability to bring the love of reading and learning to thousands of kids across Oregon each year. 

SMART volunteers have collectively spent more than 3 million hours reading with children.  To ensure SMART can successfully reach their goal of serving 9,500 students across the State of Oregon with reading support and books to keep in the 2014-15 school year, volunteer support is essential.

SMART was also recently selected as the recipient of the 2014 Library of Congress Literacy Award in the American Prize Category. SMART was selected from hundreds of applications from organizations throughout the nation. The award is a major honor for the pioneering non-profit that, over the past 22 years, has engaged more than 108,000 community volunteers to help 160,000 at-risk students build their reading skills and self-confidence to discover a lifelong love of reading.

The award was formally celebrated at a ceremony last month in Washington D.C, where Chris Otis, Executive Director of SMART accepted the award on behalf of the organization.

As a part of the award, SMART will receive $50,000 to help in their efforts to build reading skills, self-confidence and a love of reading in children at risk of falling behind. During the 2013-2014 school year, SMART served over 9,000 children throughout Oregon. More than 90 percent of SMART educators feel that students participating in the program benefit significantly. According to their teachers, nine in 10 SMART students show improvement in enthusiasm about reading, self-confidence, vocabulary, and eagerness to interact with books.

To learn more about the organization and how you can become involved, visit getSMARToregon.org. 

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