It's not just teachers who are focused on helping children become better readers.

It's also the goal of real men.

Read a United Way literacy initiative in Somerset.

The program and less role models who share stories and their love of books with young students.

So this one is the cat in the Surprise Teacher.

Real Men Read is something we started this year, thanks to a grant from the General Literacy Foundation.

This is a program that other united Ways across the country have done, but it's unique in every community.

So in our community, what we've done is purchase books for each school in our local community in Pulaski County that will be donated to their library, and then at Hopkins Elementary School and assigned to independent school.

We have male volunteers in our community who are positive, well, male role models going into the classrooms one time per month and reading those books to students.

We know that early education is vital for future success, and literacy is such an important part of that.

So we put a lot of thought into the books that we chose.

We worked with the library and here it is called Art, but we wanted to make sure that they were going to be engaging books for the students because learning to read is hard.

But the more fun that you can make that and the more exciting that literacy can be, the better it sets them up for success.

Pete loves cookies, Pete loves five feet, loves brownies, cakes, marshmallow treats, and ice cream sundaes.

A lot of our students in and, well, in Annie in general and any elementary school don't have a lot of male mentors or leadership, especially supporting their early literacy and United Ways brought this program to us, and the excitement and anticipation in our children is proof that it's very much needed.

And then the males that come are very important to and read to the classes are very important to supporting this early childhood literacy.

I think it's really important for students to see men in different career paths, and that reading is important for all of those career paths.

So we've had volunteers who are in the insurance industry, who are in health care, who are in finance, who are in excavating just a real variety.

And reading is essential to all of those.

So it lets them see a different sort of education, how education is applicable to real life, and not just education in a classroom.

I think reading is such a fundamental part of every child's education, and if we can play a small part in that process to improve the reading skills of our children in our community, then it's all worth it.

And it opens up so many windows for their future academic growth.

I hope that they take away from the fact that there are adults out there that care for them that's outside their their teachers and their principals, and that no matter what, no matter how old you are, you know, it is cool to read, no matter if it's an elementary style book or if it's an adult book or whatever, you know, that that that literacy is something that you need to have.

Yes.

As the class who loves art in here.

We know that getting students interested in reading sets them up for success in all areas of life.

You can't fill out a job application if you can't read the application.

So even something that simple is a barrier if people can't read.

It is my heart's desire and my deep hope that every student in our building sees the need and the love and how much growth they can have by all the people around them who actually read and that they would fall in love with reading so that they can fall in love with a book.

They can disappear and whatever they are doing in that day or whatever is going around on around them, they can disappear in that book.

And whatever's happening in that book.

Is the highlight of my monthly calendar, and I wouldn't miss it for the world.

Sometimes a different day is an awesome day.

The Good Stuff.

United Way's Goal is to expand this program to every school in Polaski County.