by Betty Trummel

Monomoy High School & Shine Zambia Reading Academy Students Connect After a Three+ Year Delay!

During the 2019-2020 school year, just before the pandemic made us hit the pause button on so many aspects of our lives, I had talked with my local high school’s National Honor Society about A to Z Literacy Movement and what these students might do to contribute. NHS students at Monomoy High School, in Harwich, Massachusetts, decided to have pairs of students purchase picture books with a stuffed animal/toy to accompany them. Students read the books and made recordings, to model smooth reading fluency and expression.

I packed up this project and was ready to head to Zambia to present this to Shine in the summer of 2020. Then…Covid took over our lives and my trip was cancelled, eventually postponed until this year.

Today, after three and a half years of being stored at my house, I finally got to distribute these books/stuffed toys to pupils and teachers at Shine!

Imagine a classroom of happy children, browsing through books and clutching the soft toys that could make these stories come alive! This really brought a lot of smiles to everyone, but most of all to me!

Thanks to those Monomoy NHS students who put effort into this project. Mission accomplished at long last!