History
Started in 2004 at the request of the Coachella Valley Unified School District Superintendent of Schools, Roberta and Clay Klein started a fund at the Desert Community Foundation and asked the pastor of their church for his assistance in recruiting volunteers. Father Howard Lincoln of Sacred Heart Church readily agreed. The District had been using English speaking volunteers to the extent, they could get them to go into the schools in the district that had no English speaking people in the community. Roberta asked the Superintendent if he would provide buses if they could recruit volunteers who were fluent in English through churches and other organizations.
Read With Me was born and now brings volunteers from seven churches to five different schools. The schools are all in areas of high poverty with a majority of the parents untrained in academic English. They love their children but cannot help them with English.
In 2013, Read With Me received a Golden Bell Award for English Acquisition from the California School Board Association. We believe the program is totally replicable in other areas that face similar challenges in providing tutoring and mentoring for disadvantaged children in a classroom setting.
What we do
In the classroom, the teacher assigns individual volunteers to selected students to listen to them read, assisting them with pronunciation and comprehension. The mentor/tutors are typically retired part-time Coachella Valley residents, some with special skills who help specific students go beyond the basic.
Read With Me
A Golden Bell award for English Acquisition by the California School Board Association.
Volunteer Programs
To Make a Donation
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We are accepting new and returning volunteers. We ask that you live here in the Coachella Valley either part-time or full-time to be a volunteer.
Volunteers can be on campus when fully vaccinated. We will have in-school and after-school programs, some with Zoom, others in person. We hope to be on campus in the fall and will offer busing from some locations. More details to follow.
Watch this video about our program from our local news source.
Copy & Paste the link below to watch the NEW Video from KESQ
https://youtu.be/N-goLVyG5LE
Contact us at readwithmedzimmerman@gmail.com at 760-567-1830
IN MEMORY OF...
Read With Me Volunteers has received many donations in memory of some of our wonderful volunteers who have passed. We honor their memory and are forever grateful for their contribution to our organization.
IN MEMORY/HONOR OF:
DONATED BY:
2021
BOB PIKE Melkus Family Foundation
SUMMER RAE AUSTIN John & Judy Austin
PAUL L. URIOSTE Rachel Luiz & Read With Me
John Manesis Sun City Writers Circle
2020
ROBERT BAERSCH Karin & Brock Loen
Keri & Andrew Hollenbeck
Lynn Baersch
Read With Me
Penny & Dick Wrobel
Susan and Ron Moore
Les Mendelson
Carla & Hugh Creegan
Michael Flory
DIDI OWENS ( In Honor of ) Elizabeth & Kevin Fagan
MARION LEBLANC Judith Pankoff
2019
JOAN FERRARI
Read With Me Volunteer & Supporter.
Shelly & Dan Barsani
Suzzanne Sidensol
Richard & Genevieve Rolla
Raymond J. Triplett
Clairborne Jones
Kimberly & Skip Klintworth
Donald and Therese McNeil
2014-2018
EDMUND CAREY
MARIAN LE BLANC
FAITH SCHELLINGER
CHARLES LANGERSTROM
VARLYN FINK
GEORGE DIXON
LARRY FAGAN
SALLY DAVIS
GLEN PRESLEY
MELINDA RILEY
ANNA RUGGERI
ROBERT LE BLANC
DIANE BURNS
KIRSTEN DOWELL
JANE MURPHY
CINDY LEWIS
CHERYL MURPHY
MARY ELLEN BERRY
JANET ANWEILER
ARI CRANDALL
CAROL STARKEY
DEBORAH JOHNSON
JUDITH FASCIANA
SACRED HEART
DAVID & MICHELLE STONE
MICHAEL, ROBERTA, ERIC & JAMES LANGERSTROM
SUE & WALLY TORKELLS
BOB & LINDA RISHEL
CARLTON THOMASY
CONNIE LAMBERT
KIMBERLEY FRANKLIN
DORIS ZIEMERA
ROBERTA
JOHN & SUSAN HALE
PETE DEL RIO
KAREN BLAESI
MARILYN PAIGE
MARY SKUBIK
CUNNINGHAM & CO.
CARLEEN PRESELY
KAREN MILLIKEN
BARBARA & LARRY WHITE
LARRY & GAIL ARNOFF
KATHY COPLEN
DAN & SHERIDAN STRACENER
MARY LOUISE SELLE
TERRANCE MESSERERMAN DDS
CAROL STEERE
THOM & ANN NORBURY
JUDITH WOLOWITZ