First of all, I want to thank RIF for awarding the VOYA to me. I also want to thank Norma Voth, my co-coordinator of our RIF program, and Karen Crummey, our authorizing official, for nominating me.

My own teaching career was in the classroom and as a Reading Specialist in elementary schools. Usually, this meant working with students in K-3 who couldn't read. I never had the privilege of working in a school that had the benefit of a Reading Is Fundamental program so I wasn't familiar with the program until after I retired. At that time our local Delta Kappa Gamma, a society for women educators, sponsored and organized the local RIF program. Frankly, getting back in the classroom and working with children is something I missed when I retired. At that point I still didn't have grandchildren so I really needed a "kid fix" now and then and volunteering to read for RIF was the perfect opportunity.

Well, a year later, a friend and I decided to take over the responsibility of coordinating the Reading Is Fundamental program in our local school district. I have been the co-coordinator of our local program since 2000. The present co-coordinator, Norma Voth, and I share the responsibility with the help of other retired teachers who coordinate the program at each of our six schools serving 1,900 K-3 students.

We feel that our program is special because we have 80 volunteer readers from our group as well as community members who volunteer to go into the 95 classrooms three times a year to read to the students. Many of these volunteers are retired teachers, librarians and reading specialists who can motivate these students with their enthusiasm, knowledge and skills such as the use of puppets.

The Monterey Peninsula Unified School District includes the city of Monterey as well as the cities of Seaside and Marina. The schools RIF serves are in Seaside and Marina. The school population is mainly Hispanic with 80% eligible for reduced or free lunches. The needs are great and often the parents' first language is not English. That is why we offer books in Spanish as well as English and bilingual books.

Growing up, I just took books for granted. When I was reading the Bobbsey Twins I owned and read all the books in the series. This was the case with the Nancy Drew series, also. To this day I enjoy reading books by the same author. I find our RIF students enjoy reading books in a series like The Magic Tree House and the Goosebumps, too.

Sometimes the students in our schools can't believe that they don't have to return the RIF book to the library or the school. In fact, when our program was first started, a little girl was punished by her mother because she thought her book was stolen! Now, we stamp every book with the RIF logo and the children add their own names.

In closing, I would like to quote from one of our volunteer readers who is a columnist for our local newspaper. He describes his RIF experience as follows: "We read for about 15 minutes in three or four classrooms. It would be easy to prolong that time because you literally become one with them - somehow that power we all dream of having one time in our lives - the power to go back to a time when animals could talk, and grandmas make cookies just for you!" He went on to say that "there are few better ways to start your day than being the central object of a group hug by 20 first graders!"

Thank you for honoring me tonight.

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