With the future of the Everybody Wins! Iowa Power Read program on the line at Perry Elementary School, Kathy Eineke did what she had to do to help keep the program afloat at the school. That is why she is EWI’s featured site coordinator this month.
“I thought this was such a good program,” Kathy said. “I didn’t want it to fade away from Perry because it was brand new.”
The Perry program initially began in the fall of 2016. That’s around the same time that Kathy became a reading a mentor with the program.
But with no official site coordinator to run the program, things didn’t go as smoothly as hoped. Without a site coordinator, there was no one to communicate with EWI staff about how the program was going, and no one was there to collect the required paperwork or to report on program data.
A Perry teacher and her associate did what they could to keep the program running, but the two were both already very busy with their regular teaching duties and weren’t able to fulfill the duties asked of a typical site coordinator.
“They don’t have enough time in the day to get everything done as it is,” Kathy said.
When Kathy learned the program was in need of some help, she stepped up to the challenge and took on the site coordinator role during the second semester of the school year.
Now, the future is bright for the EWI program at Perry Elementary. Not only are the current programs near capacity, there is also discussion of expanding the programs to more students and grades next year.
“Kathy is our number one cheerleader for Everybody Wins! Iowa in Perry,” Christine Russell, EWI Program Manager said. “She is passionate about helping Perry youth with reading and providing a positive mentor for them.”
As site coordinator, Kathy has had the opportunity to really see the kids in her program start to blossom.
“The mentors will say that they’re starting to want to read,” Kathy said. “The kids also really look forward to seeing their mentor. At first they just don’t know for sure, but then they get to where they really like it. And that’s been a lot of fun.”
The mentors at Perry have been a great help to the program as well. With the exception of one mentor, everyone that has started the program has stuck with it so far.
“Perry’s a great town,” Kathy said. “If they hear about something, if you can get the word out, they’ll come.”
Thank you for everything you’ve done to help the Perry Power Read Program, Kathy!