So many books, so little time

‘Angelo Binning says he doesn’t use his Xbox as much as his friends. Instead, he frequently finds himself turning off the TV and reading a good book.

“Reading helps you improve, so when you are in high school and college you are a great reader,” the fourth-grader at Brent Elementary School in Southeast says. “I want to study science when I get older. I want to study meteor showers and volcanoes.”

He is one of more than 3,000 students being motivated by Everybody Wins! DC, a nonprofit organization that began in 1995 to promote children’s literacy.

Based in Northwest, it is the largest grass-roots children’s literacy and mentoring program in the metropolitan area, serving 26 Title I public elementary schools in the District, three in Montgomery County and one in Arlington County.

Nine-year-old D’Angelo and his tutor, Aaron Jenkins of Southeast, meet once a week to read together. Mr. Jenkins, 24, who works in Sen. John Kerry’s office on Capitol Hill, spends his lunch hour with D’Angelo as part of the Everybody Wins! DC Power Lunch program. They recently finished a book in K.A. Applegate’s “Animorphs” series.

“I don’t know if I was reading as well as D’Angelo when I was in fourth grade,” Mr. Jenkins says. “He always surprises me with his reading level. I enjoy spending time with him.”

About 1,400 adults volunteer as readers for the Power Lunch program, says Mary Salander, executive director of Everybody Wins! DC. Fifteen schools in the metropolitan area participate in the program every day. More than 100 organizations have employees reading in the program, including members of federal agencies and Congress.

In addition to reading, mentoring takes place during the lunch hour, motivating the children to do the best that they can, she says.

“If the test of society is what kind of future we leave for our children, this is a testimony of what people can do to help kids with their successes,” Ms. Salander says. “You tell the child, ‘You’re beautiful. You’re smart. You can do anything you want.’”

In the Everybody Wins! DC Readers are Leaders program, 200 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders read to first-, second- and third-graders during lunch, she says. Eight schools in the region take part in this activity.

“The older children want to be positive role models in the younger children’s lives,” Ms. Salander says. “They know they’ve been chosen as leaders in the school.”

During the Story Time program, another event sponsored by Everybody Wins! DC, professional storytellers give group presentations designed to excite children about reading, she says. The students take home books related to the program, to help increase their home libraries.

“Statistics show how kids who have books in their homes do better academically,” Ms. Salander says. “There are fewer books in low-income homes. They don’t have the money for them. There is not the emphasis on books and reading.”

When the U.S. Department of Education did a 1-year study on the influence of Everybody Wins! DC, research showed academic and behavior improvements, she says. It also found that the children were checking more books out of the school library.

Books should be important in every family, says Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat. He is one of the volunteer readers for the Power Lunch program.

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