End-of-year celebrations and summer reading kickoff

The 2017-18 school is quickly coming to an end in Charleston and Berkeley counties. Students are celebrating the occasion, and their final testing, with end-of-year celebrations in our reading centers across the region. Reading Partners’ students, tutors, and program teams mark another successful year in the Reading Partners journey with snacks, balloons, and fun games. 

End-of-year celebrations are always bittersweet. While the occasion provides a much needed reward to the students and tutors who work so diligently all year, it also means “goodbye for now” between friends. Some students are moved to tears at the thought of leaving their reading partners, “I just can’t hold it in”, one kindergartener tells her tutor as they hug goodbye.

Students and tutors form a bond over the school year through celebrating successes and navigating obstacles together. That bond is evident in the pride beaming from the faces of tutors and students alike as the students receive their end-of-year certificates.

We hope each tutor-student pair takes time this month to reflect on what they have shared, the reading achievements made, and upcoming summer reading goals.

To help students achieve those summer reading goals, each end-of-year celebration includes an opportunity for students to grow their at home libraries through Reading Partners’ After the Bell initiative.

This community campaign held during March raised the necessary funding to provide 814 summer reading backpacks filled with new books, reading journals, and fun activities. That’s enough to support summer reading for each one of our students.

The excitement and joy on the faces of the students as they pick their next adventure is contagious. Staff and tutors were filled with joy to see students carefully weighing their book choices, slowly picking through the options while others, overcome with anticipation, instantly knew which books would get them through long summer lulls. This joy is possible through the generous support of tutors, donors, and local businesses who continue to provide students with new opportunities to grow their love of reading.

To view more photos of our end-of-year celebrations, visit our Facebook page.