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Meet Words Alive volunteer extraordinaire: Melinda Wynar! Melinda is a retired preschool teacher and senior program activity director who has been a beloved Read Aloud Program volunteer for many years. She has also stepped up to volunteer for several other Words Alive programs whenever we need her!
Melinda is featured as a Community Champion in this video from Molina Healthcare!
She was recently recognized by Molina Healthcare as a Community Champion for her leadership and dedication to our community. Read on to learn about Melinda’s experience reading during the transition to distance learning, her takeaways and proudest accomplishments as a volunteer, and her hopes for our community.
Melinda’s journey with Words Alive began when she started making plans for her retirement six years ago. “I made a list of all the things that I wanted to do when I retired and things that I enjoy doing,” she says. “And one of them that I always loved to do was to read to kids—it was my favorite thing when I was a preschool teacher many, many years ago.” Starting at the local library, she looked for reading-related volunteer opportunities without much success, until she heard about Words Alive from a friend. She found her way to our website, signed up to volunteer, and has not looked back since. “I just felt embraced by [Words Alive],” Melinda says, describing her first impressions of the organization.”I’ve never felt so well taken care of.”
Melinda reads aloud to a classroom full of students.
Melinda began reading at Felicita Elementary School in Escondido and has been with the school ever since. Her continued commitment to Felicita means that she has built up strong relationships with teachers and kids over the years. “I’ll walk through the school and other kids that I read with...maybe the year before...will say ‘Oh, there’s the reading lady!'" Melinda says, smiling. “The most rewarding part is just interacting with these amazing teachers and kids,” she says. “It’s amazing how it makes an impression on the kids.” This excited response from the students is what has motivated her to be a tireless volunteer for the past six years.
Melinda and one of her classrooms at Felicita Elementary smile and hold up books.
As schools have moved to virtual learning, she has enthusiastically approached the challenge of reading on Zoom. “It’s tricky,” she laughs. “I'm so used to having the kids close by and being able to have a little more interaction with them.” But she didn’t let a bumpy first meeting stop her. She reached out and began working closely with the teachers to effectively redesign the online sessions, willingly incorporating feedback to optimize the interactive reading experience for her students. “[The teacher] may actually have the kids zoom in on their iPads,” Melinda says, “so that I will see them closer and I can feel a little more interactive with them.”
She truly loves what she does, which is evident when she describes the books she reads to the kids. Her favorite book to read aloud is The Night Gardener by the Fan Brothers. “It is the most beautifully written and illustrated book; it actually brings tears to my eyes,” she says, describing the story about a magical gardener who creates beautiful topiaries by night. Another favorite is The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt, a book about a group of disgruntled crayons who go on strike from coloring.“That book just cracks me up!” she says, smiling.
The cover of The Night Gardener, Melinda's favorite book.
Melinda is honest about the lessons she's learned through her time as a volunteer. "Reading with Words Alive put me in a community I'm not usually associated with," she says. "I definitely had to look at stereotypes or biases that I had about lower income communities or Hispanic communities." Because of her willingness to learn and challenge her own assumptions, her experience as a volunteer has given her a new appreciation for the hopes, aspirations, and struggles of the communities she works with.
Melinda volunteering at a socially-distanced book sorting.
In addition to being a Read Aloud Program volunteer, Melinda has stepped up for many of our other programs, including helping with Readers in the Heights, putting together craft kits, recording read-aloud videos for children with limited home libraries, sorting book donations, and most recently, fundraising on our behalf as a Champion for Youth. But her proudest accomplishment as a volunteer, she says, was recruiting authors to donate their time to the Words Alive Authors Auction. This silent auction allowed participants to bid on virtual visits with published authors, with all proceeds going to Words Alive. “It was very fun getting different authors to sign on,” she says. Through her tireless efforts, twelve more authors volunteered for the auction. “I'm pretty proud about that!” she says.
All of this volunteer work means a lot to Melinda personally. “Retiring is a little terrifying,” she says, laughing. “I was so used to working and being involved in so many different things...I would wake up in the morning, ready to jump out of bed, because I had a definite thing to do.” Now, as a retiree, she says, “What I love about volunteering is it gives me that same sense of purpose.”
Melinda reads to four children as part of Readers in the Heights.
And although she has retired from the workforce, Melinda has never stopped giving back to our community. “What I’m really hoping is that…we can find ways to come together and to find our common humanity,” she says. “Reading is a wonderful part of bringing people together.”
We couldn't agree more! Melinda, thank you for your time and dedication to making our community a better place.