When Ripona Elementary School needed reading tutors, folks from First Christian Reformed Church in Ripon, Calif., stepped up.
In the spring of 2008, 12 volunteers formed the beginning of the Wendy Brouwer Reading Program, named after a beloved member of the church and second-grade teacher at Ripona who died of cancer in 2006.
“The school was very pleased with the faithfulness of the [tutors] and the progress the students made,” said First’s assistant pastor, Rev. Wendell Gebben.
This fall 16 volunteers are providing small-group or one-on-one help to Ripona students. Plans are also in the works to have Ripon Christian High School students act as math tutors in the mornings before school.
Gebben said, “All the [tutors] express our conviction that we need to serve our community, doing something that expects no return but the joy of service itself.”
