Wolvereaders, a student-run organization from the University of Michigan Community Scholars Program, brought Detroit Tigers mascot Paws to Ypsilanti’s Estabrook Elementary School Wednesday morning for a March is Reading Month event.
LSA sophomores Amani Echols and Maria Cholack founded the organization in 2016. Wolvereaders travels to Estabrook every other week and helps second-graders read and write letters to their MCSP mentors. In an email interview, Echols said the organization’s goals include getting elementary school students excited about reading and higher education.
Cholack wrote in an email interview the students really enjoyed Paws’s appearance and she hopes it will inspire the children to develop a passion for reading.
“It was really rewarding to see the second graders so genuinely excited about a mascot that everyone loves,” Cholack wrote. “The students were very engaged in the reading activity, which was fantastic because we really wanted them to associate reading with having fun. Overall it was a great way to bring the second graders, University of Michigan students and faculty together.”
Echols wrote the event brought Estabrook into the Wolverine community.
“Inviting Paws to be our special guest for this week’s WolveReaders visit was a great change of pace for the second graders,” Echols wrote. “It was exciting to be able to see their faces light up and be so engaged in an activity centralized around reading comprehension. … The event was a great way to strengthen MCSP’s community partnership with the Ypsilanti Public School System, specifically Estabrook Elementary School.”