This program is a favorite of teachers, students and our volunteers. It connects the school and community together to highlight the importance of reading and instill a love of reading. Bruin Buddy reading time is an event that is fun, educational and promotes social health. We are very thankful to have the Bruin Buddy program up and running again after a break due to Covid-19. We had a total of 17 volunteers participating in the Bruin Buddy program this Fall. This included James, our Little Buddy, the preschool son of our parent organizer and the brother of two of our students. The first week 14 volunteers were able to come which included a visiting Grandma and Great-Grandma of some of our students from Oregon. They even brought their favorite books from home to share with the students. The children and teachers welcomed the readers in their classroom each week with huge smiles and often hugs from the students. At the end of the program, the children made a variety of thank you cards and pictures to show appreciation to their Bruin Buddies. We also thanked our volunteers each week with a coffee/tea and snack each day funded by the NYEF Grant. Mrs. McLaughlin's culinary art's students treated the volunteers with homemade snacks for three of the four weeks. Our dedicated readers were delighted to interact with the students each week and have already been asking when they can come back to read this spring. The final day the Bruin Buddy Volunteers selected and signed books from the Book Fair to be donated to the school library.