Leslee Milch, a teacher in the Buena Park School District, recalls a particular day near the end of the school year several years ago when she held up a calendar for her class of first graders to remind them that there were only a few days left until summer vacation.
A boy who was a bit dismayed raised his hand.
“He said, ‘But who is going to read to us,’” Milch recalled. “And I said, ‘Well, sweetheart, mommy and daddy can read to you or you go to the library.’ He said, ‘No, they don’t read to us.’ So, I said, ‘Okay, well, I’ll go to the park and read to you.”
So Milch went over to Bellis Park toting a lawn chair, some books and a bag of pretzels and fulfilled her promise.
Word spread quickly, and suddenly, about 10 students showed up regularly for the summer reading sessions.
The young audiences continued to grow, and on Tuesday, July 12, Milch, a National Board-certified teacher, wrapped up her 25th consecutive summer of hosting “Read With Me” outings in front of an audience of about 50 students along with their families.
Nearly every child who attends the Read With Me sessions is a student at Gilbert Elementary School, adjacent to the park, and most live in the surrounding neighborhood made up mostly of low-income families, said Milch, who teaches transitional kindergarten at Gilbert and has taught in the district for 30 years.
“Anybody can go,” said Milch. “It’s mostly kids from the Buena Park School District, but we also have a couple other school districts nearby and those kids come too.”
Milch has not missed a summer in 25 years, not even during the pandemic when the little ones wore masks and socially distanced themselves by sitting within the circumference of Hula Hoops on the grass.
“When the pandemic hit, everybody said, ‘There goes your park reading program,’” Milch said. “I said, ‘You watch me. It’s not going to go away.’”
Buena Park School District’s newly hired superintendent,…
Read the full article here
