By Megan Alley
Sun Staff

A longstanding one-on-one reading tutoring program at Marr/Cook Elementary School in Goshen is a testament to the African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.”

For seven years now, Project MORE has been successfully pairing up students in grades kindergarten to second with a wide range of community volunteers who mentor the young students.

This year, Project MORE is serving some 80 students at the primary school.

Volunteers visit the students each day during their 30-minute “target time.” They work through the scripted program and prepared lesson plans, which include a focus on letters, high frequency words, fluency and comprehension.

Megan Ginther, K-5 literacy specialist for Goshen Local Schools, explained the inspiration for the program.

“I think it was just an opportunity to do some intervention for kids that needed reading intervention, and it’s a fairly low cost program,” she said. “It’s fairly easy to run, and if you have enough volunteers, then you can run a solid program.”

Ginther and her team have recruited a team of volunteers – 57 in total this year – who are passionate about helping the young students. The volunteers include people from all walks of life, including retired seniors and students from Goshen Middle and High Schools, and Live Oaks.

“I think the commitment from our volunteers makes it a success, because they really enjoy being here … they can see the growth … they can watch that child grow and become a better reader, and that’s pretty exciting, to know that you had an impact,” Ginther said. “They form a bond with that student that they work with.”

Ginther shared the young students’ take on Project MORE, and on working with the volunteers.

“They love it; they love coming down and working with somebody different. It’s especially appealing when they get to come work with a high school kid or middle school kid; that’s pretty cool,” she said.

Trinity McVey, a sophomore at Goshen High School, has been volunteering with the program for three years.

She decided to sign up after helping her younger brothers to read, which she enjoyed doing.

“I like helping little kids; that’s really what got me to do it,” McVey explained.

Project MORE has taught her how to interact more effectively with young children.

“I’ve learned how to talk to kids without hurting their feelings, and helping them with what they need,” she said. “I feel very excited when I come over here, knowing that the kids get something out of it, and that they’re learning from it, and I’m helping them.”

She added, “I think the program helps the kids a lot, because when I first started this year, I was working with a girl who really didn’t know how to read, and now she’s reading really fast, and she reads really big words now.”

First-grader Michael Burke looks forward to the time each day, and he’s formed a friendship with his tutor.

“It’s fun,” he said of working with a high school student.