The South Lake Chamber of Commerce hosted a ribbon-cutting for the reveal of the new Bookmobile for Read to Sydney’s “Literacy on the Move” program. The new Cargo Van is wrapped in colorful graphics, can transport several hundred books, and will serve as a mobile lending library. Children who aren’t able to go to a library can still have books to read.
Members of the Kiwanis Club of Clermont attended the ribbon-cutting showing their support of the program. “We are a proud supporter of Read to Sydney”, said member Chuck Seaver. The Kiwanians are seeking volunteers and partnership opportunities to expand the mobile literacy program throughout the community”.
The South Lake Tablet had an opportunity to speak to Thom Battisto, the founder of Read to Sydney.
South Lake Tablet: Can you explain your passion and commitment to inspiring kids to read?
Thom: I was born and raised in Chicago. The reason I have such a passion to work with children who have difficulties in learning and reading is that I was one of those kids. All through elementary school I had issues and my parents were told that there was nothing wrong with me, I was just lazy. The truth is I really did have learning issues. I had ADD (attention deficit disorder) and dyslexia.
South Lake Tablet: Who is Sydney?
Thom: Sydney was an Australian Shepherd and Chow Mix. We adopted her when she was four years old from a local shelter. We actually went to the shelter to meet a Border Collie that was up for adoption. While waiting for them to bring out the Border Collie, Sydney climbed into my lap and put her head on my shoulder. I knew there was a special bond and we adopted her.
South Lake Tablet: Tell me How the Read to Sydney program got started.
Thom: After adopting Sydney, several people approached me saying that Sydney would make a great therapy dog. We worked with a local organization to have Sydney trained and accredited as a therapy dog. Sydney and I would go to local schools teaching humane education to elementary grade children and visit local nursing homes. While having a relative visiting us, we noticed their 3-year-old child reading to Sydney and Sydney was laying with her paying attention to her every word. That week we looked into therapy dogs who help children learn to read and that’s how Read to Sydney was born.
South Lake Tablet: Congratulations! Read to Sydney just celebrated its 10th anniversary as a 501c3 not-for-profit organization. Describe how Read To Sydney is helping the children?
Thom: The mission of Read to Sydney is to help children read, “one tail at a time”. Working with children helps them not only learn to read but also build their confidence in reading. During our school visits and community events, we donate books to the children. When we started our reading program, we would visit Cooper Memorial Library every other Saturday so the children could read to Sydney and interact with her. We would also go to New Hope Christian Academy twice a week so the children with learning disabilities and reading disabilities could sit with Sydney and practice their reading with her. The majority of these children suffer from Autism or were Down Syndrome children and young adults. We are currently hosting pop-up mobile library events in partnership with the Kiwanis Club of Clermont. Every week we will visit different businesses in our community and children are invited to read and interact with Toby and then take a book home with them. We are currently placing lending library boxes throughout our community
South Lake Tablet: Is Read To Sydney basically a South Lake County program?
Thom: The majority of our programs serve the south Lake community. We have done service programs in northern Lake County and we had our Reading Center at West Oaks Mall where we served Lake and West Orange communities.
South Lake Tablet: Tell me some of the places you’ve visited with Sydney and his successor Toby and the memories you’d like to share.
Thom: I have several fond memories while working with Read to Sydney, but there are two that to this day make me very emotional. The first is the time Sydney and I were invited to visit 19 children who were in the cancer unit at ORMC in downtown Orlando. Each child got to interact with Sydney and the children were given a Read to Sydney tee shirt and a copy of Sydney’s book “Sydney Finds A Job”. The second would be when Access Hollywood chose Read to Sydney as “Orlando’s Everyday Heroes”. They flew a production crew from Los Angeles and filmed us with 15 children reading to Toby the therapy dog at Cagan Crossing Library. The following day we were invited to Universal Studios and the crew filmed us getting a private tour and Toby meeting his number one fan, Scooby-Doo!.
South Lake Tablet: Is there anything else you’d like to share with the readers?
Thom: We would like to thank our community for 10 years of support to our organization. It’s an amazing feeling running into children who have read to Sydney and Toby and are now active adults in our community.
South Lake Tablet: What can the community do to help the program?
Thom: Anyone (business, community organization, city representative…anyone) who is interested in our programs can contact us at 407 247-8595 or at readtosydney@aol.com for more information.
READ TO SYDNEY IS INSPIRING CHILDREN TO READ, ONE “TAIL” AT A TIME
