June 6, 2017 – Volunteers from companies, government groups, and community organizations—including staff from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health—gathered on June 2 at Mission Hill’s Maurice J. Tobin School for a year-end celebration for the Read to a Child lunchtime reading program.
Under the program, volunteers are paired with students in grades 1-4. They read together once a week during lunchtime, with the goal of boosting students’ interest in books and reading. Volunteers with the program this school year attended the celebration to mark the graduation of their third- or fourth-grade reading partners.
In all, 100 Tobin students had mentors this year, making the Tobin Read to a Child chapter the biggest in Boston. Thirty Harvard Chan volunteers participated in the program.
Tobin principal Efrain Toledano thanked the mentors, noting that their reading hours “stick with the children and change the trajectory of their lives.”
photos: Sarah Sholes, Magda McCormick