Read Aloud Delaware honors volunteers at luncheon

Read Aloud Delaware volunteers were recognized at the organization’s volunteer appreciation luncheon held Nov. 20 at the CHEER Center in Georgetown.

The annual event honors volunteers for their commitment to children’s literacy.

Read Aloud Delaware aims to ensure that all preschool children in the state are regularly read to one-on-one. Last year 253 volunteers read to students in 38 child care centers, preschools and kindergartens throughout the county.

County Coordinator Stacy Penaranda welcomed Read Aloud Board of Directors President Tom Black and Executive Director Mary Hirschbiel to the event. Hirschbiel will retire at the end of the year and was honored for her 31 years of leadership.

Representatives from the Carl M. Freeman Foundation were on hand to accept the Dorothy Traynor Award. This yearly award recognizes the group or organization in each county that has given the most support to Read Aloud Delaware. This year Read Aloud was awarded a foundation grant to fund a professional development workshop for volunteers. The workshop was offered as a way to keep readers inspired and enthusiastic and included information on new children’s books, engaging reading techniques, and strategies for holding youngsters’ attention. Accepting the award were Melissa Rizer, Freeman Foundation grants manager, and Jane Hines.

The Roxanne Harris Award is given to the volunteer reader who has read to the most individual children in a year. For the third consecutive year, the 2019 winner is Bob Printz of Frankford. Printz reads four days a week at three different sites and serves as team leader at one of the sites. Between July 2018 and June 2019, Printz read for more than 395 hours in 1,440 reading sessions.

The Jean Lewis Award is presented to the volunteer in each county who has given outstanding overall support to Read Aloud Delaware. Helen Smith, this year’s recipient, has served as the volunteer librarian at the Georgetown office for over four years. Smith, who lives in Seaford, sorts through book donations, maintains the library shelves, highlights seasonal books for volunteers, and tracks each book’s popularity.

The Kenny Martin Award honors the memory of a local musician and Read Aloud volunteer. The award recognizes the exceptional stewardship provide by a volunteer at a reading site. The award went to Linda Tobin of Milton for her four years of leadership at Beach Babies in Lewes. Penaranda said Tobin always goes above and beyond to be an exemplary team leader. 

The Spark Award is given to the volunteers who together come closest to achieving the goal of reading to every child every week. This year the award was won by the volunteer readers at Head Start Selbyville. Robi Cavagnaro of Dagsboro accepted the award on behalf of the Selbyville readers, including Phyllis Brian, Martha Csicsek and Mary Scarp, all of Selbyville, and Michelle Stadler and Carol Suthard, both of Ocean View.

For more information about Read Aloud Delaware, contact Sussex County Coordinator Stacy Penaranda at 302-856-2527 or go to www.readalouddelaware.org.