My Volunteer Experience: The Leading to Reading Program

By Tina Lao, Our Getinvolved.ca Intern and Author of Upcoming Campus News

I was thirteen when I first started to volunteer.  It was the summer right after my grade eight graduation. I figured that I would try to find a placement that I could carry on when high school started. Think of it as “getting my foot in the door” to collect my mandatory forty hours of community service. I saw applications for the Leading to Reading Program at my local Toronto Public Library branch. At the time, I wanted to be a teacher so a program that paired volunteers with students to help them with literacy seemed like a perfect fit. But the best part was that the only requirement was to have completed eighth grade. Great, I qualified!

I started the summer not knowing what to expect. I remember sitting at the training session rethinking my choice to volunteer. I wasn’t a teacher. I had no past work or volunteer experience. I wasn’t even old enough to sign my own police background check.

None of that really mattered.  My first summer with the program turned out to be a great experience.  I got to know the other volunteers and had fun interacting with my student. Over the next four years of my life, a 1.25-hour library visit every week became like habit.

Of course, there were a few bumps and obstacles along the way. Making the extra trip to go volunteering after a long, tiring week was often difficult.  Transportation to and from the library wasn’t always convenient. Still, I did my best to show up to volunteer. Not because I needed the hours (I was finished the forty hours before freshman year was over) but because going was always a delight.

I’ve gotten to see children change their attitudes towards reading and learn new words. I listened to their stories of how they saw the world and explained to them things they didn’t understand. Once, one of my students came into the session smiling because she finally did well on a homework assignment I explained to her the previous week.

They say kindness is hard to give away because it keeps coming back.  After volunteering for so long, I can attest to that.  Leading to Reading has built my own confidence, communication and leadership skills. It has taught me about commitment, hard work, and most importantly, it has shown me the value of giving back. Growing up, I took for granted all the support I had to help me with school.  Leading to Reading is my way of being that support for those who do not have the same privileges.

I’m not saving the world with groundbreaking innovations and I’m not building schools where they are needed but Leading to Reading is my small way of giving back and getting involved.

Check out your local library for volunteer opportunities!