Carbondale Community High School students have the opportunity to travel to Thomas Elementary School to read books with children in a program called Story Time with the Terriers. Students are assigned different classrooms in groups, allowing them to read with more children in a short time. During this time, they also get to build connections with younger kids. The children, students, and faculty all love the program because there are many positive things to learn and gain.

“(The program) is really inspiring,” says Sophomore Mazzy Miller. “It’s inspiring for the students to see the high school students being such great readers and being role models to them. It’s also inspiring for the high school students just to see the little students and how kind they are to each other and how much work ethic they have.”

“(It’s) fantastic,” says Sophomore Dakari Westley. “I say it’s fantastic because it truly is fantastic. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever done. It’s one of the only clubs that I’ve joined at Carbondale Community High School and I like it a lot more than some sports that I do.”

“(It shows) growth because it’s helping the high schoolers and elementary schoolers too,” says Freshman Noah Reed. “We are growing too. We can learn how to read better too, but we’re also trying to help them try to read. Some kids don’t really know how to read, but we can help them to read much better.”

“There are so many words that come to mind, but (it is) engaging,” says Thomas School Dean of Students Morgan Harris. “The engagement. It’s bringing everybody together. It’s making the kids want to read. Then there’s passion too. The passion is there with the kids wanting to be excited about reading. So it’s both things. Engaging for everyone, but bringing passion as well.”