For the past month, Moncton’s firefighters have been spending two mornings a week, reading to students in kindergarten through grade 5 at Bessborough School.
They wrapped up the 2016 Firefighters Fighting For Literacy Program this morning, as Grade 1 student Jacob Vansnick got a ride to school in the Ladder 5 truck this morning.
Principal Nick Mattatall says this program inspired a lot of their students to read on a daily basis, “Basically, it was 46,000 minutes that the students logged, because we asked them to read in ten minute increments. The reason we did that is we wanted everyone whether they were a struggling reader or a strong reader to have an even playing field. So if they put the effort in, they got rewarded. Kids who wouldn’t pick up a book before the program, wanted to, because they wanted to be able to tell the firefighters what they read about the week after.”
Mattatall says, the students are inspired by the firefighters, “The kids are excited because they want to impress Firefighter Chris, and Firefighter Jeremy and Firefighter Jacques and Firefighter Wendy, because they are heroes in the eyes of the kids.”
