Giving Back

As an U.S. Department of Education intern, I’m fortunate to have many opportunities to participate in volunteer opportunities at ED headquarters. One of the best opportunities this summer was the Let’s Read!, Let’s Move!series. Let’s Read! Let’s Move! took place throughout the month of July and seeks to increase awareness of the importance of summer learning and encourage adults to read to children. Thanks to this great initiative I was able to volunteer on both July 6 and July 26, 2011.

The July 6^th program was ED’s first installment of the series and featured guest appearances from Secretary Arne Duncan, Hall-of-Fame Basketball Player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, and Miss America 2001 Teresa Scanlan. Holder read parts of Dr. Seuss’s book, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, and enthusiastically read, “Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away!” In contrast, Abdul-Jabbar read Mina Javaherbin’s Goal, a book about a group of South African children who overcome bullying to follow their love of playing soccer, while Hanlan sat with the children in the audience and participated in theLet’s Move! portion of the event.

While the guest speakers were great, the children were by far my favorite part of the event. The program had over 100 students, ages 3 – 7. Students from Joint Base Anacostia Bolling Youth Center, Edward C. Mazique Parent Child Center, Inc., Children’s Choice Learning Center, and the Parents Coalition of Montgomery County attended the event. All of the kids were amazing and I especially enjoyed their questions and comments about the speakers’ choice of books; they ranged from, “I like books,” to “I like your books,” to “I like vegetables,” to “You’re Tall” in reference to Abdul-Jabbar. As a volunteer, we were encouraged to play with the children, which was a nice break from the usual work day. I was responsible for the “Snack and Hydration Station,” which means in simple-man’s terms that I handed out water bottles and lunch boxes (generously donated by Target) to each and every child at the program. The lunch boxes contained coloring books, crayons, pedometers, and fruit and granola bars, to promote good future health.

Overall, the event was fun and it felt good to give back for the day

C.C.