Matthew Waite seemed to take naturally to reading books to young kids at École Mount Prevost on Oct. 22.
Waite, a member of the Cowichan Valley Capitals who is in his first year with the local hockey team, joined a couple of other team players and prominent members of the community at the French immersion school on Oct. 22 to read to the students.
All of the schools in the Cowichan Valley school district participated in the annual Drop Everything and Read Challenge on Monday.
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Notably, members of the North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP detachment read to the kids at Maple Bay Elementary School, while school board chairwoman Candice Spilsbury was one of the readers at Alexander Elementary School.
The DEAR Challenge promotes reading as a fundamental tool for success, and everyone involved in the district’s Challenge this year took part in 20 minutes of morning reading at the schools.
The first language of Waite, who hails from Sherbrooke, Quebec, is French and he said he was delighted to be invited to read French books to the kids.
“I was surprised that there are French schools here,” he said as he was given a book to read to a Grade 4 class at the school.
“It was nice to hear French being spoken so well by the students. Most places outside of Quebec in North America are English so it was great to hear the language I’m most familiar with being spoken here.”
Ian Zibin, principal at École Mount Prevost, said it’s inspirational for the students to be read to by prominent community members that they can look up to.
“The entire school is involved in the DEAR Challenge this year, with our community readers speaking in different classes during the morning,” he said.
“It’s valuable for today’s students to learn different languages. Being bilingual opens up doors of opportunity for these kids in their lives.”
A press release from the district said everyone participating in the DEAR Challenge would like to remind families and kids that reading is not an activity specifically reserved for the DEAR Challenge, and the whole family can benefit from a visit to a bookstore, a trip to the library, or borrowing a book from a friend.
Grade 4 student Maxim Magnon said he enjoyed Waite’s reading session.
He said he likes to read and is pleased that, after four years in the district’s French immersion program, he is fluent in French.
“I’m happy that I’m now able to talk to my grandparents who are from Quebec,” Maxim said.
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