Young Reading - With Spirit: Local book reviewer and cheerleader's reading program is ready to go nationwide

"CheeReaders has been an awesome experience for me. I love reading to the little kids and seeing how excited they are to read a book to me. I love the way their faces glow after reading a whole book to me."

-- Morgan Hurst, an East Forsyth High School cheerleader who reads at Piney Grove Elementary School.

My childhood world was filled with books. Bedtime books, daytime books, in-between books. My sisters and I even dressed up as Madeline characters for Halloween one year. One night we ate peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches in the bathtub as Mom read We Eat Dinner in the Bathtub to us. I have been engrossed with books all 15 years of my life. It boggles my mind that some other children do not have the same reading opportunities that I have.

Thanks to this column, my mom and I receive several books a day, sometimes boxes full. When we are finished with the books, we donate them to local classrooms and libraries. Using this column's incredible resource and my love of cheerleading, I have founded an organization called CheeReaders.

This service project originally was designed to carry me through high school at East Forsyth, where I am a cheerleader, while I read weekly at Cash Elementary, the elementary school closest to me. Now the program is spreading to other high schools and elementary schools. CheeReaders is designed for cheerleaders to go to area elementary schools and read to emerging readers. It's free for both schools, easy, fun and fits into the schedules of cheerleaders, who are often their school's busiest student athletes.

Olivia Cruz, a Reynolds High School cheerleader, has started CheeReaders at Brunson Elementary.

"It's such a great feeling to walk in and see the students' faces light up. We create a bond with the kids we read with, and it's so rewarding. Once, when I was leaving, a student gave me a hug and said, ‘Do you really have to go? This is so much fun!' I was touched that by simply reading a book, something that gets service hours for school can really make a difference for the young students in our community," she said.

CheeReaders mainly focuses on one-on-one reading time. Jeff Maglio, the assistant principal at North Hills Elementary, once told me that it takes 100 hours of one-on-one reading until reading "clicks" in a student's brain. In households where books are a luxury, this can be a difficult obstacle.

The average children's book costs from $15 to $17, or more than two hours of work at minimum wage. For some parents, choosing between a new book and dinner isn't much of a choice. And yet, without that daily reading time, a child is already behind before he or she starts school.

CheeReaders has developed into a three-tier program. We read weekly at schools, we are recruiting other cheerleaders to develop CheeReaders in their area, and we are staging a free one-day camp on Aug. 22. We are targeting children who might not have had those precious 100 hours of reading time, children who are emerging readers and children who just want to participate. The camp will be at the Gateway YWCA in Winston-Salem. The Winston-Salem Journal has donated printing of the registration forms to help get the word out.

I hope that CheeReaders can recruit 150 campers and 150 cheerleaders to make up our camp, which will be staffed by the Universal Cheerleaders' Association (UCA), thanks to Ransome Harper of Clemmons, who is the UCA southeast regional manager. Varsity, Harper's employer and one of the largest corporations in cheerleading, will launch CheeReaders nationally at their UCA camps this summer and have promoted CheeReaders on their Web sites (www.varsity.com; www.uca.com).

Our own first annual CheeReader summer camp will be made up of chants, a dance, one-on-one time with a cheerleading mentor, and an exhibition put on by the campers and Cheer Extreme Allstars. Scholastic Books is giving every camper and cheerleader a book to take home. So many generous donors are making this come together. So far, we need only snacks and someone to print the donated shirts!

The CheeReaders Web site, www.cheeReader.com, has been designed by a local graphic designer, Pam Fish. The site contains everything about CheeReaders, even a link to register for a booklet telling how to start a CheeReaders chapter. Another link gives the registration form for our camp.

So why did my mom let me devote an entire column to CheeReaders? Because I'm hoping that you may know someone who may want to come to our summer camp, or you may know area cheerleaders who want to mentor.

For me, reading has been a retreat, an escape and a pleasure as long as I can remember. I hope that by using a fun format and connecting big kids with younger kids, CheeReaders can share how words on a page can transport someone.

Kinsey Sato, a Glenn High School cheerleader who reads at Sedge Garden Elementary School, says, "It's really cool how we get to read to little kindergartners, and the kids are so cute and sweet the way they look up to all of us."

If you or someone you know may be interested in CheeReaders, please visit www.cheeReader.com.