Friends of Sun City Libraries restart reading program
Halted during COVID pandemic
By Irene Nathanson, Friends of the Sun City Libraries
Posted 6/12/23
After a 3-year suspension, Friends of the Sun City Libraries restarted their volunteer program, “Read to Me,” an interactive reading experience for seniors in area memory care facilities.
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By Irene Nathanson, Friends of the Sun City Libraries
After a 3-year suspension, Friends of the Sun City Libraries restarted their volunteer program, “Read to Me,” an interactive reading experience for seniors in area memory care facilities.
The program, originally called Book Friends, began in 2017 when Judy Wannamaker, then Friends vice president, and fellow board member Charlotte Klose collaborated with the staff of Woodmark at Sun City, 17207 N. Boswell Blvd., to create an interactive reading program for their memory care residents.
The Book Friends program flourished at Woodmark, and grew from one volunteer reading to a single resident to 10 volunteers reading to an entire group weekly. In 2019 10 additional volunteers joined, and the program, co-lead by board member Linda McKnight, expanded to serve a second local memory care center. Before long, the program became vital to both staff and residents.
Then in March 2020 the COVID pandemic hit and the reading program was discontinued. Volunteers took a hiatus, but the Friends board remained active with monthly meetings and continued to support the branch libraries as they shifted to online program and services.
COVID eventually subsided, the bookstore and libraries reopened and Friends got back to business. One of the top goals was to again serve the community, particularly the elderly homebound. The need to restart the reading program in assisted living and memory care facilities seemed obvious, urgent and the best way to start.
To accomplish this, a committee was formed and outreach began to revive the dormant reading program, now renamed Read to Me. Friends Homebound Committee members Irene Nathanson and Ruth Polansky met with Michelle DeFord, Woodmark’s activities director, and discussed plans for the program’s resurgence. It was agreed that residents at Woodmark’s Legacies Memory Care would benefit the most. Legacies is a specialized program center devoted to seniors coping with dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Read to Me officially launched June 7 at Woodmark at Sun City. Long-time Friends volunteer Cheryl Cassady met with a group of 10 residents at Legacies Memory Care and conducted her first reading. Currently, a team of nine volunteers will provide half hour reading and valuable weekly interaction to Woodmark’s Legacy residents.
The Friends of Sun City Libraries invite residents to join the Read to Me program and become a volunteer reader. Make an impact and become involved to enrich lives and celebrate reading.
