BUSINES AND SCHOOL JOIN FORCES TO AID LITERACY

First-graders at Jefferson Elementary School received a couple of treats Tuesday when employees from Sam's Club visited their classrooms with books and refreshments in hand.

Two Sam's Club partners read stories to two first-grade classrooms at the school and then presented the class the book to keep in its library. Afterwards, the students enjoyed cookies and punch courtesy of the store.

Principal Gerald Landewee said Sam's Club employees will visit the school each month this year as part of a new literacy project. The business is one of the school's corporate sponsors, he said, and officials hope the project will help students of all ages at the school develop an interest in reading.

"It's a wonderful thing to be able to help our children develop an interest in reading," Landewee said. "We have a business partnership with Sam's and they plan to do a lot of different projects to benefit our students."

Sam's Club partner Cherie Herbst said she is a member of an employee activities committee at the store that helps develop community service programs. "I've been doing work like that for quite some time," she said. "I asked them if they wanted to initiate some youth-oriented activities, and we are one of Jefferson's business sponsors, so we just thought we'd try this and see how they liked it."

Sam's Club partner Sharon Mullen said the response to the literacy project was so great that each volunteer will only visit the school once. Many of the volunteers are simply looking forward to working with the children, she said; the reading portion of the project is a bonus.

Students and teachers were very receptive of the program. Students listened intently to the readers and asked questions when necessary. Afterwards, several students hugged Herbst and Mullen and thanked them for visiting the class.

First-grade teacher Marsha McGowen said she appreciated the project because students benefited whenever reading is stressed and also because students were given information about a business some of them may never have visited before.

"It's nice to have an associate with the business come in and introduce the kids to another world they may not be familiar with," she said. "Any time we have communication of sharing the differences about various businesses it helps. I think it's also nice to have a few different readers besides the teacher sharing with the kids."