July 22, 2019 Book Buddies! Connecting youth to professionals. It's summertime! From beach trips, rafting and berry picking, we keep our youth entertained during this three-month period. While summer is meant for fun, it often comes at a price, which is summer learning loss. It can be hard for youth to stay engaged in learning during the summer, making it difficult to bounce back when school starts in the fall. Here at Friends of the Children, we help prevent summer learning loss through one of our favorite events called Book Buddies! "Getting to be a Book Buddy was an absolute joy for me. The kiddos lit up as they had the chance to share their reading skills, get guidance with bigger words, and dive into a story together. Reading to each other quickly turned into talking about ideas, a conversation led to laughter and laughter became active play. These moments of genuine connection felt like a lovely gift, nourishing and essential for both them and me. What a privilege to get to be a part of it!" — Book Buddy Volunteer Book Buddies is a volunteering event where Portland business employees come to our Rockwood center and interact with our youth through reading and other fun activities. First, our youth and volunteers are matched together. Then, our youth chooses a book where either our volunteer reads to our youth or our youth reads to the volunteer. After reading a couple of stories, the youth and volunteer can switch to playing board games, playing a sport or drawing! At Friends, we believe that interactions between youth and adults are important. Our volunteers came from many different fields and backgrounds, giving an opportunity for our youth to see what these professional adults do for a living and possibly inspiring them. Not only that, but it gave our volunteers the opportunity to learn more about Friends of the Children and witness how amazing our youth are. We would like to give much appreciation to the businesses who participated in our summer Book Buddies event, and a huge thank you for allowing your employees to volunteer for it. Here's a list of companies who helped make this opportunity possible: thesisJLLHoffman ConstructionHeritage BankInsperityAutodesk We look forward to seeing you all again next year!