LAKE STEVENS — Julie Borges’ after-school golf practice was canceled because of rain.
She could have gone home on that Friday afternoon. Instead, she headed over to Sherwood Community Services to join a group of fellow high school students who were bu
sily adapting books for children with disabilities.
“It feels like we’re doing something that is really helpful,” said Julie, 17. “A lot of major organizations get help, but I’d never heard of Sherwood before this and I think they really needed the help.”
Sherwood Community Services at 402 91st Ave. NE is a nonprofit that provides services for children and adults with disabilities in Snohomish County. When the student group receives a request from a therapist to adapt a children’s book, a volunteer uses a computer software program to find clip art to represent words, colors, shapes and actions that are part of the book.
The art is printed off the computer, then laminated. A strip of Velcro is stuck on the back and the small cards are then stored together in a bag with the book’s title on it until a child is ready to read that book.
The pieces are used by parents and therapists working with disabled children, usually unable to speak, to strengthen reading skills such as comprehension. An adult asks questions about the book and the child uses the cards to respond.
“We could ask, ‘What color are the shoes?’ and the child would point to a picture square with the color red,” said Susan St. John, who works at Sherwood. “We find that this actually improves skills, and it creates a reading experience that often times children who are nonverbal don’t get to have.”
The student volunteers, who are all part of the Lake Stevens High School Key Club, have been creating a library of adapted books since January, St. John said. Collectively, the group has logged more than 140 hours on the project.
“It takes a lot of time to create these (books). They’re very labor intensive and it’s not something that our staff can do,” St. John said. “We want to build a big library of over 200 books. Right now, we have about 50 and students have done it all.”
Borges and several other club members volunteered at Sherwood Community Services for the first time in September during the United Way of Snohomish County Day of Caring event. Students painted the agency’s administration building then and worked hard to complete the project, St. John said. She remembered their dedication and called Lake Stevens High School to ask if volunteers would be interested in adapting the books.
The group started volunteering twice a week after school, adapting some of their own childhood favorites including several books by Dr. Seuss, “Curious George” and “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” Now a group of at least four volunteers work on the project for several hours every Friday afternoon.
“I thought I might get a couple (students) to volunteer a few times but they do not miss a time,” St. John said. “They’re just incredibly responsible, highly dedicated and they take very little supervision.”
Sophie Nelson, 16, was one of the first students St. John trained on the computer communication software, Boardmaker.
“It’s easy, you just click a square and design it,” Sophie said. “It’s fun to go back and revisit the books you read when you were a little kid.”
Volunteering at Sherwood has helped junior Monica Sykes, 17, learn more about careers in speech therapy.
“I love working with kids. This has given me another (career) option to think about before senior year,” she said.
Students helped organize materials for a March workshop for parents to learn how to adapt books for their children, St. John said. They are also building kits for books for visually impaired children that include different tactile graphics and objects.
The student volunteers often don’t want to stop working until a project is finished, she added.
The club’s incoming secretary, Brianna Diaz, 16, said club members plan to volunteer at Sherwood for the rest of the school year and want to continue during the next school year.
“It’s actually the highlight of my week, I love coming here,” she said.
Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491; adaybert@heraldnet.com.
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