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Lead to Read KC is on a mission to help children in grades 1-4 improve their basic reading skills by reading one-on-one with a trusted, caring adult from the community. 1,100 mentors donate one lunch hour a week to the effort. The results go far beyond learning.

Kansas City Public School leaders are inviting individuals, nonprofits, and businesses to volunteer for the district’s new mentoring program that begins this fall. The goal of the new mentoring initiative is for each student in the district, almost 15,000 students, to be paired with a caring adult to help inspire, encourage, and guide them to success in school and in life.

At midday on any given Wednesday at King Elementary in Kansas City, the parking lot begins to fill. But the people arriving at the school are not children. These people, ranging in age from 25 to 70 are readers with Lead to Read KC, and they are coming to school not to learn, but to read with students.

Every Tuesday during her lunch hour, Lynn Carlton has a standing appointment with a first-grader at Wendell Phillips Elementary in Kansas City. In addition to her job as an urban planner at HOK, Carlton is a volunteer with the Lead to Read program. On each visit, Carlton takes 30 minutes to work with her reading buddy Shamarian.