Schools of Hope: Built by Sonoma, for Sonoma

As a child, the autumn months meant running off the school bus to wait for my father to return home.

I would wait in the dim dusk light of our living room, watching the empty driveway in callow anticipation. Yet when his Chevy would finally pull in the driveway, his truck door would never open. Many November evenings I sat on the arm of our loveseat, watching my father asleep in the driver’s seat, so exhausted from police patrol and carpentry work that he couldn’t do more than drive home and shut off the engine.

After spending his childhood with no promise of a warm meal and a stifled educational outlook, my father worked himself into a dead sleep to ensure that I would have a different fate.

For many families in Sonoma Valley, this is an all too familiar image. With the sunlight hours receding and our work days swelling, families have precious little time to spend together. Many parents in Sonoma experienced childhoods like my father. These parents work hard to give their children a brighter future, but too often the demand of modern life can turn to neglect of a most crucial stage in a child’s development: reading with a parent.

In Sonoma Valley, 79 percent of our third graders are reading below proficiency. We are in the midst of a severe and alarming educational crisis – but this is a crisis we can change here and now. United Way of the Wine Country’s reading initiative, Schools of Hope, is going strong in its third year in Sonoma Valley. By partnering with Sonoma Valley Education Foundation, the program places volunteer reading tutors in five of our district schools to empower our youngest students and position them for success throughout life.

A Schools of Hope volunteer is someone who cultivates courage, confidence and hope within a child. You can create a lifelong impact by donating a mere 30 minutes a week from January until May.

No matter how many long hours my father worked, he always set aside time to read to me. As a child, he inspired me to become a voracious reader. Some of my earliest memories involve sneaking books into church pews, beneath tables at family reunions and by flashlight under my blankets. And that has made all the difference in my life.

This past May, my father watched me walk across the stage at my college graduation ceremony – as a literature major – and I knew from his smiling eyes that he couldn’t have been prouder. Unfortunately, there are many children in this Valley without my level of support – but our community can change this issue together.

Over the past month, I have had the pleasure of tutoring three students at Dunbar, Woodland Star and Sassarini. It is an immensely and uniquely rewarding experience to see our students light up with excitement as we step into the classroom. From Prestwood to Flowery, our tutors have been welcomed into the greater school families as they kindle a love of reading in the ones who need it most.

You don’t have to be a miracle worker to make a difference. If you can read, you can help to shape a child’s life. We need tutors from all walks of life. More than anything, we need people like my father: people who are willing to share the joy of reading with a child.

If you would like to help us uplift our emerging readers, please consider volunteering as a Schools of Hope tutor today. Dedicate 30 minutes a week and you can change a life. For more information about supporting a child, email me at jimmy.wright@unitedwaywinecountry.org or call 935-9566.

“In Sonoma Valley, 79 ?percent of our third graders are reading below ?proficiency. We are in the midst of a severe and alarming educational crisis – but this is a crisis we can change here and now.”

– Jimmy Wright