The Animal Rescue League of Berks County, PA has developed an amazing volunteer program, which helps school-aged children and shelter cats at the same time. The program pairs children with shelter cats and the children read books aloud to their new feline friends. This helps kids practice their reading skills, while also giving some much needed TLC to the shelter cats.
Book Buddies is a volunteer based program where kids can offer to read to sheltered cats.
“The program will help children improve their reading skills while also helping the shelter animals.” the shelter explained.
“Cats find the rhythmic sound of a voice very comforting and soothing”
In order to entice the kids to come back for more reading fun, they are rewarded with prizes every time they finish 5 books.
The prizes include, but are not limited to, stickers, and yummy snacks. But, really they don’t even need prizes, because they love the cats.
Many of the cats just hang out and do “cat things” while getting read to…
…But, a lot of them appear very appreciative of the company they receive from the kids.
Being around humans makes them feel like they’re part of a real home.
What a wonderful way to increase children’s community awareness. We wish more shelters would do things like this! Share if you agree!