Each Monday and Tuesday, first-grade students at Edwards Elementary School are paid a special visit by volunteers with the Ames Golden K Kiwanis Club, who help students improve their reading skills while also serving as a valuable mentor.

The Golden K Listeners, started last fall, lets Kiwanis members listen to first-graders read for 15 minutes, helping the students improve their reading fluency and accuracy.

“It’s been a really good program,” said Emily Norris, one of the first-grade teachers at Edwards. “Honestly, I think there is a lot of academic gain that comes along with it, but really I think a lot of our kids just want someone, especially males because a lot of our kids don’t have a strong male role model in their life, so even just that mentoring that happens is really huge for them.”

Don Muff, one of the Kiwanis volunteers, said most of the volunteers are retired community members. Muff said the group has previously given money to support programs for local children, but this initiative allows them to have a more direct impact on children’s lives.

“One of the mottos of Kiwanis is serving the children of the world, and we didn’t really have a project going on with the school system,” Muff said. “We thought, hey we need to get directly involved with what’s going on so we came up with this idea.”

Kiwanis volunteer Bruce Wight said the students either come out into the hallways in small groups or individually to read to the Kiwanis members. They started the school year reading books, but Wight said this spring semester they have worked on standardized passage readings to increase fluency.

“I have a grandson that is a first-grader, so it’s fun to visualize and see the similarity to what he is going through,” Wight said. “I enjoy working with the kids. It’s fun to see how they progress over the year.”

First-grade student Aurelia McKinney said, “Sometimes it’s nice,” to read with the Kiwanis volunteers.

McKinney said she likes reading all the adventure books with the volunteers such as “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and “Harry Potter.”

“I have a daughter that is a first-grade teacher in Colorado so I’ve gained a new perspective with what she puts up with and also been able to go to her for some advice about how to motivate different kids and it’s been a fun experience,” said volunteer Bob Sperry.

Muff said the program has received good feedback from teachers and administration.

“We are hoping we can maybe expand this to other schools,” Muff said.