UPCOMING EVENTS

With much of January in the rear-view mirror, have you settled into your 2019 routine? Is there free time in your schedule? Do you feel a need for more meaningful activities? RSVP has good news for you.

The region’s leading agency for adult volunteer programs and opportunities, RSVP offers hundreds of options for you to explore, such as reading to Head Start preschoolers, driving stranded seniors to medical appointments, or assisting at a thrift shop, food pantry blood drive or area museum.

Some are middle and high school students. Some are young adults seeking a GED. Others are veterans preparing for college. The students in RSVP’s My Free Tutor program have one thing in common: They need help with math.

A cadre of around 50 RSVP volunteers who are comfortable explaining algebra — and also the importance of math in everyday life — provide that assistance, often from home using a whiteboard program on their computers.

Story time becomes magic time for preschool students as RSVP volunteers visit Head Start classrooms and read books to eager children.  Students sit crossed-legged and wide-eyed during reading time because they know they will be transported into the pages of a great adventure.  They look forward to story time with anticipation each week.

By reading to young children, volunteers help them recognize letters and their sounds, ideas, speech patterns and they learn how to manipulate sounds into words and even to predict outcomes of stories.