成人快播

By聽Julie聽Wenger Watson. Originally聽posted on聽.

狈补尘别:听Justin Harlan

础驳别:听31

Known for:聽His work as the new executive director of 成人快播, a nonprofit that pairs community volunteers with students grades K-3 who are reading below grade level to provide one-on-one reading tutoring.

Like many third-graders, Jayla聽(pictured above)聽loves bugs. She likes them so much, in fact, that she recently chose an insect book to take home.

Thanks to the nonprofit 成人快播 and its 鈥淭ake Reading Home鈥� program, Jayla鈥檚 book collection will continue to expand each time she meets with her reading tutor, Justin Harlan, 成人快播鈥� new executive director.

Each week, students have the opportunity to take home a new book in exchange for doing a book report. 鈥淭his year we鈥檒l give away 14,000 books to kids through different donations from bookstores and individuals,鈥� Harlan says. 鈥淣ot only are we teaching kids literacy skills, we鈥檙e also building their at-home library.鈥�

Harlan enjoys the tutoring sessions as much as Jayla does. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really fun,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a great way to give back, and I鈥檓 eager to return next week.鈥�

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On the importance of third-grade literacy:

In third grade, education shifts from learning to read to reading to learn. If you don鈥檛 have those skills, you fall more and more behind. Our future as a city relies on third-grade literacy. Without it, we鈥檙e not going to have people in college, and we鈥檙e not going to have skilled workers. We might not be feeling it now, but in 10 or 15 years, we鈥檙e certainly going to be feeling it.

On the volunteers:

Our volunteers are what make us go. We have a goal of 1,700 volunteers to impact 1,500 kids, but we鈥檇 love to exceed that goal. I know Tulsa has people who really rally behind organizations like 成人快播. (At press time, 成人快播 had 1,127 volunteers.)

On the mayor鈥檚 support:

This year G.T. Bynum has given every City of Tulsa employee permission to go volunteer and be a Reading Partner. He has a goal of 100 employees. We鈥檙e just about to that goal. It鈥檚 a unique setting when the mayor is rallying behind you.

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成人快播 commit to聽read聽with a student one hour per week. To become a Reading Partner, call 918-949-1979 or visit聽.