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Salvation Army Echelon To Celebrate Reading Month

March is national reading month and the Salvation Army is hoping to make a difference.  The Salvation Army Echelon will help spread the joy of reading to kids at Grand Rapids Elementary Schools during their “army of readers” event.

“So, Echelon is a group of young professionals and we exist to help other young professionals connect with the Salvation Army.”

And connect they will.  Lisa Funk, the Salvation Army Events Coordinator says for this project, the Salvation Army Echelon will celebrate national reading month. They’re expected to read to more than 700 students. Over 30 young professionals in the group will read to kindergartners, first, second and third graders.

“It’s really our goal to just encourage reading for students, but do something fun and different and to encourage teachers and we think it’s so important to volunteer, so just getting young professionals to volunteer and get into the schools.”

Each volunteer will read to at least 2 classrooms, they’ll also do an activity and present the book to the class. In addition to encouraging literacy, they’re hoping to promote volunteerism in Grand Rapids Public Schools as well.  The reading event takes place next Friday at Stocking Elementary.

Jennifer is an award winning broadcast news journalist with more than two decades of professional television news experience including the nation's fifth largest news market. She's worked as both news reporter and news anchor for television and radio in markets from Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo all the way to San Francisco, California.