Everybody Wins! Vermont makes children’s lives better—and Beth Sightler is the first to tell you so. Everybody Wins! made a big change in her son Will’s life. “Will had been slow to read,” Beth recalls. “[His] teacher approached us; we found out he had a visual impairment in one of his eyes that we weren’t aware of. We thought he wouldn’t progress at a normal rate in school.” Then, Will joined the Everybody Wins! Vermont mentoring program, and everything changed. Continue reading “I got a higher reading level, and I think that was because of Jim.” →

“Our weekly reading period is a mental break for both of us. I find it rejuvenating to set aside my own concerns for an hour and put myself in the shoes of a ten year old.” Scott Silverstein is an Everybody Wins! mentor at the Waitsfield Elementary School. He has only glowing things to say about his ten- year-old mentee, Riley, and their relationship. Continue reading “Reading together is a mental break for both of us.” →

Tracy Lord moved from Georgia to Vermont in March of 2016 to be closer to her family—and found a rich connection to a child and reading community in Burlington.  Tracy loves to read herself, loves kids, and had already been involved with an adult literacy program in Georgia. She had a strong desire to give back to children and her new community.

“My dad was a literature professor at Hofstra University on Long Island. I just hate to hear a kid say, I don’t like to read.” Continue reading “I just hate to hear a kid say, I don’t like to read.” →