Youth at Friends of the Children - Klamath Basin logged 2,700 minutes of reading in January, motivated in part by a monthly reading contest – complete with prize bags! One of the contest’s newest contenders is Rozalee, a 4th grader who loves Minecraft, drawing, and the characters Stitch and Toothless.

Called “nothing but a pleasure” by her early grade teachers, quiet Rozalee fell through the cracks of classrooms that were dominated by peers with behavior issues. It wasn’t until a 2nd grade computer-based assessment that Rozalee’s academic struggles became too clear to ignore: Rozalee could not read the instructions to launch the test.

Seeing this, Rozalee’s Friend Naomi pursued tutoring help with Stella Andrews, an experienced and engaging K-1 teacher who had recently retired in Klamath Falls. Within a year, Rozalee progressed from being too scared to try sounding out a word, to knowing enough sight words and phonetics to read a book independently. Rozalee recently read a stack of ten Pete the Cat books in the Friends’ clubhouse library.

"I'm getting good at this reading thing!" she said.

Rozalee’s new skills have engendered new confidence in and beyond the Friends clubhouse.

“She went from not even attempting to participate in class to reaching out to help her tablemates at school,” said Naomi. “She’s gathering kids to play a PE game instead of sitting alone. She’s opening up with me about situations where she feels vulnerable. It’s been really cool to see her coming out of her shell.”

Friend Naomi will walk alongside Rozalee for another 8 years – and can’t wait to see where her story goes!

"To protect privacy, real name and photo of youth not used."