Fountain Hills Ambassador Girl Scout, Laura Abril, completed her Gold Award Take Action Project, “Reading Buddies,” and joined a very select group of women who have earned the Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can earn.

Abril, an avid reader herself, was concerned about the three-month summer slump in reading; a national problem not unique to Arizona. She felt children get out of the habit of reading and fall behind during the summer months.

The goal for her “Take Action” project was to address the need to reinforce early reading skills all year long while encouraging the love of books in a fun, interactive setting.

Reading Buddies, a free pilot program, was held this past July at Palomino Library in Scottsdale. Abril researched different reading buddy programs, bounced ideas around with her Gold Award Project Advisor, Alexis Skidmore, and consulted with a Title 1 teacher on reading techniques before writing the entire curriculum for her Reading Buddies program.

After the curriculum was finalized, Abril solicited teen volunteers and held training sessions on how to be effective listeners, tutors and positive role models to a young child. Young readers played literacy games before they were paired with a teen buddy for a 30 minute session of shared reading and one on one interaction.

Often a relationship formed with their reading buddy; helping the young reader to feel more comfortable about reading out loud.

“Practice does make a huge difference in retention of reading skills,” Abril said.

Approximately 25 children participated in the four summer reading sessions; with 95 books read and 21 free books earned.

“I am pleased with the turnout for this pilot program at Palomino Library and grateful that they considered it a success” Abril said.

“Thank you to everyone that helped me step up and advocate for children’s early reading literacy. Completing this project improved my communication and leadership skills and helped me gain practical life skills. Hopefully, along the way, I helped educate and inspire others to take action and make a difference for their community.”