LAWRENCE — Inaiyah Toribio, 7, made her way word by word through "The Cat in the Hat" yesterday afternoon as 14-year-old Cam Means followed along.
"You read that all by yourself," Cam said when she finished. "Good job. That's a long book."
Inaiyah smiled. Monday is reading day at Manos Felices/Happy Hands, the day when North Andover Middle School students Cam, Corey Chaff, 14, and Danny Laorenza, 14, come over after school to spend time reading with children at the Hancock Courts housing complex.
Over the past year, the three teenagers have logged more than 100 hours reading to the students, working around their own schoolwork and football practice. Corey joined the two others in February after he heard about the program.
Joumari Lantigua, 10, said she comes almost every day to the Manos Felices after-school program, and she really likes the reading room, a quiet place to come and read or do homework. She said she likes when Cam, Corey and Danny come because they will pick different books than the ones she has heard about at school.
"I don't have any books at home," she said.
Betsy Ojeda, outreach director for Manos Felices, said the teenagers provide positive male role models for the students, who are mostly raised by single mothers or grandparents. Ojeda said many students speak only Spanish at home, so they have no one to read to them in English or listen to them read. She noticed that many students struggle with their homework because they have trouble writing in English. Manos Felices is for children ages 5 to 14 living at Hancock Courts from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday during the school year and from 1 to 3 p.m. during the summer.
In addition to giving the students a chance to read books, Ojeda said the students also appreciate new voices and new people stopping by the program once a week.
"For them, it helps them to know that somebody is interested in what they have to say," Ojeda said. "They struggle through a lot. They get happy when they see other people will bother to come."
She has seen the students have more of an interest in reading since Cam, Corey and Danny started coming on Mondays. She painted the crafts room, put in bookshelves and transformed it into a reading and homework room. In addition to reading with students, Cam, Danny and Corey also have collected used and new books over the last year. Many stay in the reading room, but Ojeda said she sometimes gives them away as rewards to students.
Tammy Rosario, 9, is always an enthusiastic volunteer to read. When Cam, Danny and Corey asked the students to pick out some new books they had brought from a box yesterday, Tammy jumped in and within minutes was reading a Care Bears book to Danny. Meanwhile, Alex Larae, 6, was getting some help from Corey on his selection. Other students, about 10 in all, read to each other or to themselves, waiting for a chance to read to the teenagers.
Cam said he got involved because the project seemed like an important one. Since then he has seen students become more interested in reading.
"English is their second language, so very few of them can actually read to us," he said.
All three middle-schoolers attend St. Paul Episcopal Church and are the first to lead reading for Manos Felices through Communities Together, formerly the Greater Lawrence Council of Churches. Yesterday was their last day reading to the students because the school year has ended and they will be busy with high school next year. They are now looking for other middle-school students interested in continuing the program next year.
Corey said reading has always seemed basic to him, something he picked up in school and from his parents. But he said for the students at Manos Felices reading seems like more of a privilege and a treat.
They came to teach and help the students, but Danny said they also have learned about the children of Hancock Courts, who are struggling with poverty and language barriers that he hasn't had to experience in his own life.
"We are shown the world outside the quiet North Andover suburbs," he said. "It has opened my eyes."
