Thursday, October 14, 2010

Everyday Miracles

It's been an exciting week as the SitStayRead volunteers head back into the classrooms! We're in 7 schools (soon to be 8) and class sizes are as large as 32 students. Despite the close quarters, everyone makes room and has a great time reading and writing.

Allison Jasinski, (shown here with a student from last year's program) had a wonderful surprise today at the dog safety presentation at Near North Elementary. When it was time for the students to practice approaching a dog safely the classroom teacher let Allison know that one of the students is non-verbal in social situations so probably wouldn't be able to ask permission to pet the dog. To everyone's surprise the young girl walked right up to the dog team and with perfect articulation asked, "May I pet your dog?" She then sat down next to Brady and chatted about his soft fur, smiling from ear to ear as she gently pet her new friend.

We can't wait to hear about the progress she makes when reading to the dogs next week. An everyday miracle indeed.