Grenada’s Mt. Airy Young Readers Program

     Thus far, we have spent three thankfully uneventful hurricane seasons in Grenada.  I like it here because there is a plethora of enticing activities from which cruisers can chose to entertain themselves.  It isn’t called “Camp Grenada” for nothing.  So we tune into the morning net daily and make plans for the day.


     My very favorite weekly activity is volunteering at the Mt. Airy Reading Program. This program is the brain child of Grenadians Mr. and Mrs. Pascal and has been in operation for over nine years. This recollection of the story may be in error, but I believe it was ‘born’ after a local youth caused damage to the Pascal home and was to be jailed because he could not pay for the repair.  The Pascals recognized that the youth lacked basic skills to get a job to pay his debt and offered to help improve his skills in lieu of incarceration.

Ready to READ!

     The Mt. Airy Young Readers Program occurs on Saturdays during the school year at the Pascal residence where their large garage has been converted into a nicely equipped library/classroom.  A taxi bus is arranged to collect volunteers from the various anchorages around 9AM which takes them on a twenty minute drive up and over the winding mountain passes for the nominal RT fee of 10 EC.

Game time

    Volunteers are met with a warm greeting from Mr. & Mrs. Pascal and guided to a table of eager children (one to five in number) with their preselected books. The sessions begin and end with all joining hands for a short prayer. Then a few delightful songs are sung before everyone breaks into reading groups.  Reading is followed by board or card game time which the children naturally LOVE!  Then Mrs. Pascal gathers everyone in circle fashion again and some multiplication tables are recited in unison. Next, is a bit of oral spelling and, finally, a group story that usually teaches a life lesson. Before dismissal, everyone is treated to a cold drink and hearty snack.

    NO TEACHING EXPERIENCE IS NECESSARY!  YOU, as a volunteer, will not be teaching them to read, but YOU will be helping them cultivate a love for reading with deeper understanding. All of the children with whom I worked knew how to read, although some lacked confidence.  I focused on helping them understand vocabulary or idioms within the text, predicting what might happen next, or summarizing what was read.
    CRUISERS: PLEASE VOLUNTEER! You need not commit to more than one session, but be prepared…after you go, you may not want to stop.


The students in my last group took all these photos.