Altrusa First Read to Succeed gives free books to young readers

OLIVESBURG — “Are you a professional reader?”

The question, posed by a first grade student at Crestview Elementary School, brought a smile to Lori Sjostedt’s face.

“Well, I am actually,” Sjostedt replied.

As a real estate agent, Sjostedt reads through listings and contracts on a regular basis. But on Tuesday afternoon, she was doing a different kind of reading.

Once a month, she and other volunteers with Altrusa International of Mansfield visit first-grade classrooms across the county to read aloud to the class.

After each visit, all student get a brand new copy of that book to take home.

“Does anybody in here have to do some reading for homework, maybe?” Sally Gesouras asked her batch of first graders across the hall.

Every little hand raised.

“Maybe you can use this,” she said, holding up her copy of “The Caring Me I Want To Be.”

“You can read it to your mom or dad or brother or sister or a dog or a cat or to yourself, but I’m going to read it to you first.”

‘We don’t want to just hand out money, we want to do something’

Mansfield’s Altrusa chapter launched its “First Read to Succeed” program two years ago. Last year, the club distributed 7,500 new, grade level books to Richland County’s young readers.

“The students see that others are invested in their success as readers, and the students enjoy and get excited to have new people read to them,” said Christy Walter, a first grade teacher at Crestview.

Gesouras said the idea for the program came from an Altrusa member who remembers as a child not having money for book fairs.

“We also received comments from teachers we support that they would love to make sure each of their students could get at least one new book during the school year,” Gesouras said.

“Some teachers used their own money to buy a book for each child in the classroom.”

Gesouras said approximately 1,071 first-grade students are benefiting from the program every month. All books are pre-approved by the area’s school superintendents before Altrusa places its order.

Altrusa orders approximately 7,500 books from Scholastic each June. After that, members sort and sticker books, and separate them by school and classroom for reading and distribution.  

Altrusa members said they’d love to expand the program to private schools, but the cost of books is expensive.

First Read to Succeed runs October through April. The cost of books — around $25,000 — is funded largely through local grants and the group’s annual Spring Bash.

“We always try to combine activity with our funds.  We don’t just want to hand out money, we want to do something,” Gesouras said.

She said her monthly visit to first-grade classrooms is her favorite thing to do.