May 6: Getting With The Program (Part I): Open Books Buddies

In honor of Open Books’ tenth anniversary, we’re exploring a chapter of our story each month from February to November.

May’s Chapter is History.

This month, we’re taking you through each year of our history, starting with our founding on May 1, 2016.

The following posts were written by our Founder, Stacy Ratner.

We had a home, but we weren’t planning to stay there for long. Even if we had been, it wasn’t ideally set up for students: one big room, a few offices around it, and a single bathroom in a hall around the corner. Our first program, then, would most likely be school-based. We explored nearby possibilities, found an interested literacy specialist at Schiller Elementary, put up flyers in our building and contacted people on our volunteer list, and began offering our very first Open Books Buddies sessions in January 2008. At lunchtime, we’d meet volunteers in front of our office, then walk to Schiller together and spend an hour reading with 1st-3rd graders. “I’ve been looking forward to this all week!” exclaimed one of our very first students, running down the hall to give us hugs when we arrived. We felt the same way.

As the semester went on, we added word games, book giveaways, and special mini-events with partners like the StoryBus.

And to keep summer slump from setting in when school let out, we partnered with the Chicago Botanic Garden to create a reading garden in the Schiller playground and kept it stocked with books until the fall.

Although we didn’t know it, time was running out for Schiller. In 2009, the school closed for good, leaving us with memories and eternal gratitude for everything we’d learned and everyone we’d met.

Eight years later, Buddies is still going strong, providing 2,600 hours of one-on-one reading support for more than 150 students annually. We’ve added elements to make it even better: regular twice-weekly sessions, visits from the Open Booksmobile where each students picks out a bag of books to keep, frequent reader cards, a sticker recommendation system, and color-coded book leveling so that everyone can find something fun, interesting, and a little bit challenging to read. What’s stayed the same, as we expand to more schools and neighborhoods, is the fundamental and life-changing connection between our students and their Big Buddies, who help them — as one student summed things up in 2015 — “learn about reading and being happy.”