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How READ Association of Saginaw County Helps Kids · Sidewalk Talks

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Samantha Ingle. Welcome.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I'm happy to be here. I love books. I love reading. So this is gonna be fun. Good.
• 0:07
  Yes. Love books reading and, like, specifically, like, kids reading. Mhmm. So before we talk about reading and books and all the things that we love we both love, tell me about like, just give me like, what is the one zero one of Read Association? What what is it?
• 0:25
  What does it do? Well, like, what's the the two sentence story about Read? Yeah.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: So the Read Association began in 1966 and the mission was and still is to help children improve their reading skills and discover the joy of reading.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Mhmm. Saving the world is really Yes. What that
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: I think so.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Saving the world. Would when did you join?
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: So I began as, in in this position in January 2024. So I've been there two years.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Very cool. Where where were you what were you doing before?
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: I was the historian for Dow Gardens and the Herbert h and Grace a Dow Foundation. Really? Yep. How fun. Yes.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: How did you get that gig?
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: So I have a master's degree in history and, always, you know, loved history, wanted to teach history in some way, and ended up in the museum world. So I was the director of a small house museum in Flint. That was my first post grad school job. And then, and then got the position in Midland.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: How cool. Mhmm. Why history?
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: I I mean, even as an elementary school kid, social studies was always my favorite. I love stories about people and, you know, learning how people interacted or how they cooked food or, you know, overcame problems or whatever it is. Just I mean, stories, obviously, I like to read and I like books, so I like stories. And when they're about real people, that's even more interesting.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I was just making the connection to books and reading. It's just like, oh, I see this all coming together. Yeah. That's true.
• 2:01
  Like, I guess I've never really thought this explicitly, but I I did really like social studies too for that reason, like, like because it was stories. Like, it was like like, look at this guy and how he was like, you don't like, I don't like you. I'm gonna conquer you. And then they're like, what do they do? And, you know, like, all of that, like, where, you know, did did he actually cut down that apple tree or not?
• 2:26
  The mysteries of that. Mhmm. Yeah. So social studies, you rock. You're
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: awesome. I
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: love that. Then you became the historian at the gardens.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Like, what what did all of that entail? Because typically, you're like public facing. You don't think like you may not necessarily connect that to history and his historicity. So what were you doing there?
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So, at Dow Gardens and the foundation, they held all of the, like, family letters and photographs and all that kind of stuff of the Dow family. So we had a very, like, limited in scope, but really deep archive of the Dow family and Herbert Dow. Within Dow Gardens, there's the green old house, which is The Pines, which is the home of Herbert and Grace Dow. And, so I did the programs in there.
• 3:21
  It was still filled with all of their art they collected and the clothes, everything. And so I created programs and tours and did historical walking tours throughout the gardens and, really just helped share this, you know, 100 plus history of the folks who lived on that property with all the people who visited it today.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: I think sometimes people forget that Dow and all the Dows were real people.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Yes. I think I think that's easy to do with like, you know, anybody from the past. I
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: True.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Grad school studied, the American Revolution. That was my my favorite. Mhmm. And, wrote my thesis on Thomas Jefferson. And, you know, all of these folks, everybody who lived back then, it's easy to think that they're just some character that you saw in a documentary or learned about in a classroom.
• 4:15
  And it's like, no. They were real people. And, you know, people think Thomas Jefferson had hemorrhoids. You know? Like, they they had real problems like that.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: I love that you said that because that's immediately where my head went to, like, Thomas Jefferson's hemorrhoids. But, like
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Of course.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. If you yeah. Squeeze that guy. I got it.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: I got the one side. Now I got the
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: other one. Because as you were talking about it, like like, we we just have this impression that people from history, like, just always had it together. And, like, like, they were always brilliant, and they were always right, and they were always all like, they were never insecure, anxious, or had, like, bad parts of themselves or their personalities. And then, I mean, like, over time, that less memorable things, like, they they go away, then you're just left with a founding father. And you just, like, always think about them walking around their cobblestone roads, like like, just, like, reciting the declaration of independence.
• 5:14
  But really, they're just like, I I like, why don't girls like me? You know? Yeah. You know, that kinds of things.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: He had that period too.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: So Or I'm having, like, this itch down here, and I can't get it to go away. And, like, that that I that's part of history that I really love. Like Uh-huh. Yeah. Okay.
• 5:29
  Ben Franklin, but like, oh, who was he? Let's talk about that. Like, what what kind of duty he was. Yep. So how long were you working for Dow?
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Almost eight years. Somewhere between seven and eight years. Cool. Yep.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Cool. So when when did Reed come on your radar then?
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: You know, I was look so my my husband actually had been a Reed mentor in the Oh, cool. He had known when he was a kid like several people who were Reed mentors because Reed really got started with mentor programs taking place in churches. So through his church, he had learned as a kid about it. And so I knew about Reed. And when I saw the job posting for this position, I I wanted to work in Saginaw.
• 6:15
  I lived in Saginaw. So, I had not yet worked in the town that I mean, I live out of town, but in the area that I lived in, in the county I lived in. And, you know, it just felt like a really important role helping kids read and making a really positive impact in the community. And that's and, you know, that's what I was drawn to.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Is the Reed Mentor like, is can you go like as a one time thing? Or is it like you do you do it like every week? Or like talk to me about that.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So the program that Reed has had since its beginning, essentially, is this mentor program. And the idea is, an a trained adult volunteer mentor is paired with a kid who needs reading help. And though the program has changed in some different ways and now mostly takes place in schools during the school day, you're making, like, a school year commitment to once a week show up and give your one on one, you know, undivided attention to this kid, and help them read and be a positive adult presence in their life. You know, you never know what these kids are dealing with True.
• 7:26
  In school, out of school, anywhere. And so for them to feel like they have a community that cares about them, think is really important. And if you can build their reading skills at the same time, that's wonderful.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And speaking as a former teacher too, like, sometimes you also sometimes kids also just need somebody else telling them that this is important. Like, you're you're the teacher or you're the dad or the mom saying like school's important or you should love reading and all those things. For whatever reason, doesn't necessarily connect or have an effect. But, you know, when that mentor comes in and says, you know what book I love?
• 8:06
  And they're like, oh my God, I love this book. And that cracks open the world of reading for them simply because it was a different person or it was an older man that you like, and you hadn't had a relationship like that before, an older sister kind of feeling relationship, and it's just like anything that works. I feel like I might have been a Reed mentor in high school. Did you ever work with schools?
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: There yeah. There were some different programs
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: that I have. Went to Michigan Lutheran Seminary.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Okay. I don't know off the top of my head what was going on
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I feel like I feel like maybe we went to, like, Buttman Fish or something like that.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: We have a program at Buttman Fish.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: So I'm, like, throttling through a memory that I haven't thought of in, like, thirty years. Wild. Yeah. Read Mentors. Yes.
• 8:49
  Woo. You guys are awesome.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: We'll just claim you.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. So we when I had you give the one zero one of Read Association, it was all about kids and literacy and reading. What exactly does Reed Association do? We just talked about mentorship as long as we're going down this road.
• 9:08
  Other than the mentorship, what else does Reed do to help kids read?
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So we also have a tutoring program, which is newer. So we so our offices are located at 100 South Jefferson. We're right next to the Castle Museum. Mhmm.
• 9:23
  And there we have our office and then our Family Literacy Center. And so we have a tutoring program that largely operates, out of the tutoring center. And this is generally for kids who, you know, they they're seriously lacking in their reading abilities. It's not like, you know, little Billy needs a little extra help. It's like little Billy missed something very early on and needs somebody to start back at the beginning.
• 9:47
  So we use a specific program. It's called the Barton system of reading and spelling. And you're starting with those that early, you know, phonics work, letter sounds, that kind of thing. And you're building up to whatever level in the program meets their appropriate grade level fluency. And so the mentor program is like, you know, that good one on one attention and support, but the tutoring program is really this structured program meant to, you know, really help these kids build skills in a sort of scientifically proven way.
• 10:22
  And then we have our family literacy program called Raising Readers Academy. And in that, we work a lot with the parents. Kids have their own little activities they're doing, and then the kid and the parent will do an activity together. But the idea is is that we're introducing and having conversations about activities that parents can do to engage their kids at home. Because learning, of course, takes place outside of school, and they need those things reinforced once they leave school or before they reach school in some cases.
• 10:55
  And so, you know, it's little things like, you know, you can play games with letter magnets on the refrigerator, and we send them home with these tools. And so that's a multi week program that we do several times throughout the year.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: I want to give you props for that program specifically because like, I was a former teacher, and now I'm a parent with three wonderful girls. And it's even hard for for me as a former educator to think about like, how do I help my girls read? Mhmm. You know, like, you're of overwhelmed with life and there's so many things to do and everybody's busy all the time. And then you have a child that starts to struggle in reading, and then it's like, oh, what do I do to help?
• 11:38
  And so for you guys to provide that assistance, reading assistance, literary literacy assistance, not just to kids, but also to families, I think is so brilliant because, like, parents also are thinking, the tutoring is great and school is great, but I also want to be doing something I can at home and not necessarily a two hour long read aloud, but having those letters on the refrigerator or how do you spell this word or like, you know, tell me a story or the, you know, the five minutes of read aloud before they go to bed. Just I I think that that in and of itself makes Reid such an important part of this community.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. It's, you know, you're our program coordinator's working really close with the families there and, you know, you see the growth. You see, you know, the kids, their activities are meant to help, you know, boost their confidence, teach them how to share and
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Mhmm.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Give people, you know, turns to talk and things like that. But, you know, the comments from the parents are always it it shows how valuable the program is.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So you've got the the mentoring, the tutoring, the parent assistance, any other, like, year round programs or services that you
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: so no other programs, but we just give away oodles of books. So Yeah.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: You do.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: Community events. Yeah. So we're always there with the table giving away books. We take in, gently used book donations so that we can then give them back out, give them their next life. Because I mean, the studies show that when a kid is able to select a book for themselves and own a book at home, they're, you know I mean, I don't know exactly how much more likely, but way more likely to pick that book up and, read it later.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, like, we're all just more likely to Mhmm. Like own something if we got to pick it out as opposed to it being inflicted. I want you to read about George Washington. Then I like, may maybe I just wanna read about trees.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: You know? Yeah. The the books, I I believe it was Cynthia?
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: Mhmm. It's a previous record.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: She's she's awesome. Mhmm. I remember the interview I did with her. I went to the office and it was just like tables and tables of shelves of like stacks and piles of books that were just being given away. She was like, yeah, this is what we need.
• 13:56
  Yep. And I also love the physicality of real books too. Are you are you like a Kindle person?
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: No. I mean, read ebooks from time to time. I using the Libby app. I'm a big, library user.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Tell the folks at home what that is, the Libby app.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: The Libby app is a magical application that you can put on your device. And through it, you can check out ebooks and audiobooks because audiobooks are reading. I'm a staunch proponent of that. Yeah. And, yeah, it's just like you're just checking it out like you would from the library, but you can do it in your pajamas, drinking your coffee Yeah.
• 14:31
  On Saturday morning.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: I didn't know. I didn't know about the Libby app until I made a post once because I had like a Audible subscription that I never used and it was just kind of accumulating credits. And I looked and I was like, oh dang, I've got like 17 credits here that I paid for. And I think I made a random post on Facebook. I'm like, Hey everybody, what should I use my Audible credits on?
• 14:57
  And in all the public library champions who are so amazing came out and they're like, hey, Phil, like you should burn those Audible, credits, but check out this Libya. It's just like checking it off from the public library. And it's like, it's awesome. Like people, you use the public library.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: Mhmm. Yeah. Definitely. Yes.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah. You said something about audio books are are reading. Mhmm. Yeah. I hear that's contentious.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: It it is. I I hope the tide is turning, but I I think I read an article once that studies have proven that the same part of your brain is working Yeah. When you're listening to an audiobook is when you're reading it. And it's not that I have problem, you know, like, I can read a book, but also I have to walk my dog for an hour every day. And if I can listen to a book while I'm doing that, that's great.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think I think that that conversation is like there's so many bigger fish to fry. Like the folks saying boo, audio books aren't reading. Like those are the folks like doom scrolling for eight and a half hours on like Facebook, like, you know, sorry, that's probably overgeneralizing, but like, man, diving into books in any kind of form. It's just, just a win for everybody.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: This episode is going to come out. It's probably February. I'm talking into the future. It's probably February And March is National Reading Month. Yay.
• 16:25
  What are you guys doing for March?
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: So we are, hosting two new events this year, and, each one, they're they're each gonna have a different name. The marketing is out for our event, that is on March 14 at the YMCA, and we're gonna be hosting a free book fair there. Mhmm. So parents can register their kids. They can come, and they will get vouchers to pick out three, new books to take home.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Three? Wow. Three.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: Yes. Three
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: and books. It doesn't get Yes. Better than that.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: And and the Y will be having some activities, and we've invited some other partners to be there, so that I don't have a list yet. That sign up is out with them right now. Mhmm. And then the marketing will be going out shortly for our event that is the Saturday prior to that, Saturday, March 7, and that's gonna be at the Swan Valley Performing Arts Center. And it is we're doing the same thing.
• 17:19
  We're doing the free book fair, but, you know, we'll have the the libraries from that area all there. We're trying to host something that will reach further out into the county because we serve the whole county. So we're hoping Saint Charles, Merrill, Hemlock folks, the Thomas Township and Freeland people too will come.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: City Of Saginaw folks, you should crash both of those because Yes. More books, the
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: Yes. And and so we'll have partners there. I believe the school's gonna have a free family movie immediately following the event.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: Very cool.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. We're excited. We hope to be giving out, you know, like 1,500 books between the two events and
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. So we're excited. It's it's something new. It's taking the place of our book delivery program that we that began, with the previous director during COVID.
• 18:08
  Yeah. Parents would register and say what their kids were interested in and books would be delivered. Super important at a time when people couldn't get out in places. But, now we really want to try to place that agency back in the hands of the kids, and so they can have that, like, shopping experience. True.
• 18:28
  And they'll get their little vouchers, and they'll have to decide for themselves which books they wanna pick and
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: Turn them in and take their books, and then go do other fun things with the other cool people who will be there.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: The most excited I see my daughter is at school when they're doing, like, Scholastic Book Fair, and she gets to, like, run up and down those tables and, like, look at all of the books. She's got, like like, anybody work walking into a bookstore coming out with a stack of 15 books. Like, just so that I remember that being in third grade at Pine Avenue Elementary School in Elma. Pine Avenue Panthers, how do you feel? And and like just like like having that experience of looking at all the books and being able to to really see there.
• 19:15
  And like you said, choosing that book is so important. Like, you you don't want to just get a book. You want them to read the book. And so anything that you can do I would also imagine logistically, it's it's easier for you guys to take 1,500 books and put them in a room Yeah. And have people come to you than, like, hop in a van and deliver them.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. We had, I mean, amazing volunteers who would help package all these orders, and then, we would map out the route, and put, you know, 10 to 15 stops or so in a route, and then we found would find volunteers to do that. But, you know, it gets it gets harder to find volunteers. True.
• 19:54
  So so I'd be lying if I said that that wasn't one of the considerations. But again, I I I think that the kids doing the thing on their own is is the big draw for us.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. That'll be the both both of those events will be super cool. So tell us the tell us the dates, locations again, just so that that folks have one more chance to hear it.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So, Saturday, March 7 at the Swan Valley Performing Arts Center from twelve to two, and then Saturday, March 14 from eleven to one at the YMCA right here in in the city of Saginaw.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Very cool. And so folks, if you if you need the the graphic or the flyer reminder, if wanna keep connected to Reed and and all of that, where where would they go?
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So they should definitely follow us on Facebook. We are the Reed Association of Saginaw County, and we post, tons of stuff. Our office manager is awesome and creates really cool and fun and funny reels and flyers and all of that. All of those details will be there.
• 20:54
  Our website, which has not yet been updated with our new logo and branding, but the website is reedsaganaut.org.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: And I would imagine folks that are interested in the the the mentoring and the the tutoring and the parent assistant, that that's where they would go to get more information about how to sign up for that?
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: Yep. Yep. You can do that that or you can email. The email's really easy for that. Just email office@reedsaginaw.org.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Awesome. Do it, people. Yes. We need more kids reading better, reading every day, getting away from the screens. I know we all battle it.
• 21:31
  Adults battle it. It's not just kid thing, adults. We gotta do better too. We gotta listen to the audiobooks. We gotta pick up the physical books.
• 21:36
  We gotta get our brains off the screens. But, look, I wanna thank you for for the conversation. But more importantly, I wanna thank you for the work Mhmm. That you and the rest of the crew, the volunteers are doing. Really fighting the good fight and, you know, it's it's a it's an it's an investment into our kids and into the future and sometimes that can make it feel like it's less urgent.
• 21:58
  But, man, so so important for their quality of life, for our community, for our culture, for our country. So I wanna thank you so much for joining me and for all the work that you do out in the community.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Thanks for having me. I appreciate the opportunity to share.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: You're awesome. Thank you. I love that conversation. Yeah.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: And we fit in