The summer of 2020, during a pandemic, was a critical turning point for Cash as he had just finished second grade and hated reading. His mom, Dianna, signed him up for the Harrison Barnes Summer Reading Buddies program. The four-week program pairs students one-to-one with a trained volunteer to read and complete literacy activities together. Dianna said that he “simply adored” his volunteer tutor, Carolyn, during their tutoring time together over the summer. Dianna went on to say that Carolyn made such an impact on Cash that he now has a newfound love for reading. When Cash went back to school in the fall, with the pandemic still widely spread, his teacher emailed Dianna to share good news about Cash’s benchmarks in reading. Cash had scored high on his beginning of the year testing, so high that he had achieved the benchmark level that is expected of third graders at the end of the year.
Dianna let Carolyn know what a valuable impact she made for Cash. “Thank you, sincerely, for making such a difference in an area of his life I wasn’t sure how to ever improve. I am incredibly grateful.”