According to www.kshb.com, a summer camp in Merriam, Kansas encourages kids to read to animals at a no-kill shelter.
Kids between the ages of 8 and 12 who signed up for a week of Young Heroes For Pets Summer Camp at the Great Plains SPCA in June or July spend their days doing a series of activities which “emphasizes kindness, respect, responsibility, decision-making as well as movement, play, cooperation, problem-solving, reading and writing,” according to the camp’s web page. At the end of the week, each camper is awarded a Young HEROES certificate in front of friends and family.
“When the kid is reading to the pet, they tend to correct themselves,” said Rachel Hodgson, the Great Plains SPCA’s communications director, to KSHB Kansas City. “Their confidence boosts up and then we get the phone calls from the very happy parents that their kids are getting up to the next reading level.”