When SMART volunteer reader Erica Harris first met Matt at Crooked River Elementary in Prineville, he was quick to tell her, “I don’t like reading.”

Erica, who will be starting her third year reading with SMART this October, remembers, “Matt spent our first few reading sessions wiggling or laying his head on the table as I read to him.”

Erica remained patient, however, and kept encouraging Matt’s reading for the next six weeks. “If you don’t want to read, I can bring you back to your class,” she would offer gently to make him more comfortable. He replied, “I want to be where you are.”

A bond had developed, but Matt still wiggled impatiently through sessions. “The day he asked me, 'can we read that book again?',” said Erica, “I knew he had become a reader.”

This spring, the Crook County community came out for SMART and little readers like Matt in a big way. At the 14th annual international Kids Day America event sponsored locally by Dr. Coby Hanes and the Hanes Chiropractic Wellness Center, Crook County citizens, businesses and civic organizations raised $4,500—bringing the three year total raised for SMART this event to $12,000.

“There are so many other programs we could choose to donate to,” said Dr. Hanes. “But SMART gets at the root of the problem—which is illiteracy.”

He believes that if you look at the socio-economic status of people who require the most public assistance, you will see a much larger percent who are illiterate.

By giving the gift of literacy to young children through SMART in Crook County schools, Dr. Hanes feels he is enabling children to move up in life.

“When I read a great book, I think of it as sticking my hand in a pot of glue—a little bit sticks with me forever,” according to Hanes. “When a SMART reader sits down with a great book and a young reader, they are helping that child dip into their own pot of glue, helping them learn forever.”

To protect student identity, names and details have been changed.