Students Trinidy Strong and Hailee Wall share a book with volunteer Andi Moles.<I><BR>Photo by Cheryl Jessup </I>

PRAIRIE CITY – It’s hard to tell who’s more eager – the children or the adults – to get the picture-taking over with and get settled down with some favorite books.

SMART (Start Making a Reader Today), a non-profit literacy organization, has made a difference in reading skills for many children in schools across the country, including Prairie City School. Since its founding in 1992, SMART has served over 100,000 children, about 11,600 in Oregon. Its main goals are to improve reading accuracy, fluency and comprehension, through one-on-one pairings with adult volunteers.

The program runs for seven months of the school year, from October to May and is designed for children in grades K-3. At Prairie City School, SMART days are twice each week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, during which children meet in the SMART room to pair up with adult volunteers for half-hour reading sessions. Books are arranged and divided into about four or five reading levels that the children can work up through.

Andrea Ennis, who has headed up the program for Prairie City the past two years, says that after the school year gets going, the teachers select children who might best benefit from the program. Then permission slips go out to those parents, and the reading adventures begin.

Ennis quickly emphasizes that the program is intended to enhance, not replace, the classroom learning and the work of the teachers.

There have been 16 children in the SMART program this year at Prairie City School, and about as many adult volunteers, too. Several high school students also regularly help out.

Of the children’s reading confidence and progress throughout the year, Ennis says, “It’s impressive watching the change in them.” Twice each month the children get to take home a book from the SMART library to share with family and she says the children really look forward to those days.

And the volunteers, who provide good role models for the children, seem to get just as much enjoyment out of it all too. Ennis says, “The program wouldn’t be what it is without the volunteers. They’re very dedicated.”

The program at Prairie City concludes for this school year on May 8 and the children will receive certificates at the last school awards assembly.