By Danielle Smith

Leader Staff Writer

The Lakeville Elementary Literacy Club has a lot to be thankful for this season. They were the recipients of some local generosity totaling $305.

At the 2019 Oxford Business and Health Expo, held back in September, the Oxford Chamber of Commerce announced the Literacy Club was chosen to receive a donation from the Chamber to benefit students participating in the club.

Alaina Sullivan, secretary for the Oxford Chamber of Commerce board of directors, first heard about the club through her husband, Tim, who is one of the mentors for the club.

“We wanted to rebrand the Business and Health Expo and find a charity the community could benefit from, so we reached out to (the Literacy Club) to see what their needs were,” she said. “They don’t receive any money from the school, this is all volunteer.”

The Literacy Club, formed in the spring of 2017, is comprised of a group of students who struggle with literacy and are guided by a group of mentors that are all volunteers. The goal of the club is to help those students become better readers and better citizens.

On Wednesday and Thursday mornings before school starts, the students and mentors meet at Lakeville where books are read, games are played and socialization occurs, all in the name of improving literacy.

Last Thursday, the Literacy Club was visited by Sullivan, who presented the check on behalf of the Chamber as well as an additional check donated to the club by her solo legal practice, Sullivan Law Office. However, Sullivan wasn’t the only one bearing gifts. Brenda Gyomory, co-owner of Curtis Insurance Agency, won the raffle at the business and health expo and chose to donate her winnings to the clubas well.

“I’m actually a part of the committee who helped plan the expo,” Gyomory said. “I learned a lot about (the Literacy Club) from committee meetings and I feel it’s a great program. Reading is such a great skill all children need and if we can help someone, I’d love to do it.”

According to Kimberly Donnelly, who leads the Literacy Club, donations will be used toward more learning games for the students as well as gratitude journals.

“There is a lot of research which shows when students start their day naming some things they are thankful for, they have a better day. That improves their literacy, but also their writing as they work with a mentor,” she said.

Donnelly said games played at Literacy Club help build skills “in a different way” than reading a book can.

“We have a Bingo game that is sight words and they play that together,” she said. “With Bingo, (the students) are looking for the word and identifying it fast, but some of our other games are classic board games … Everything we do either helps with memory or sequencing or actually building literacy skills.”

Steven and Diane Giroux, Oxford residents, are two volunteers who mentor students in the Literacy Club and have witnessed improvements in the students’ literacy first-hand.

“When they start sounding out the hard words, it’s the best,” Diane said. “Even if they are a little off, it doesn’t matter, but they are working on it instead of just guessing. It’s nice to see them really working on the words.”

Steven echoed her statement and said, “It’s cool to watch a kid who struggles from the beginning and then by the end of the season, you see them reading stuff that is way beyond what they were doing before.”

At the time of the presentation, students had the opportunity to share what they loved most about Literacy Club. Their answer? Reading.