“You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.” – Dr. Seuss

Can you believe that we are a complete month into 2020? And with that being said, we are also into our second semester of the school year. We are so excited with the onboarding of Loma Park and Winston elementary schools in Edgewood ISD. This is an historic opportunity for San Antonio Youth Literacy. Each semester, we recruit service-learning students from St. Mary’s and Our Lady of the Lake Universities to be Reading Buddies and because of the proximity of these two elementary schools to the university campuses we will be able to serve even greater numbers of students. Our university volunteers find being a Reading Buddy to be highly rewarding and they earn college credit while doing it. A win-win all around. 

As you know, we ended the year with a donation ask from all of our loyal supporters and, boy, what support we got. Our board of directors issued a $10,000 challenge and not only did we meet that goal, we far exceeded it bringing in an additional $13,000.  We want to continue to provide a high-quality program for our students and the Reading Buddies who work with them. The only product we market is our students’ outcomes which are proven year after year through our results. Those of you who are Reading Buddies know this first-hand, but if you are not a Reading Buddy, we invite you to visit our website and read the report card we publish every year. 

Thank you again. We, as always, look forward to the new year and its possibilities. If you aren’t a Reading Buddy, please give us, and a child who needs you, a shot.  

Deborah Valdez, Executive Director