YORK -- A few minutes before 9 a.m. every Thursday, two ladies sign in at York's Jefferson Elementary School, each as a "volunteer."
Somehow, the world "volunteer" doesn't seem to cut it.
Because on each of those days during the school year, for about two hours, first-graders come one at a time, out into the hallway, to sit at one of two tiny desks.
Across from the kid, hunched over one tiny desk, is Margaret Pridmore. At the other desk, with a kid on the other side, sits Kathryn Anderson.
Each child reads, one-on-one, for about 10 minutes with a lady across the desk running a bony index finger over the words. The ladies read upside-down.
The fingers are bony because Pridmore's index finger is 86 years old, as is the rest of her - except for her heart and her brain.
Her heart is in the first-grade, and her brain is each day brand new with the wonder of children.
Yet next to Anderson, Pridmore is a kid. Anderson, smiling non-stop, is 89.
Anderson, retired from accounting, and Pridmore, retired from the office of a factory, have both done this - helping first-graders in reading, a skill that is the key to unlocking a future - each Thursday of the school year for 20 years.
They receive no money.
"I do it to help the children," said Anderson on Thursday morning, the last day of the year she will help with reading for Lauren Brown Adams' class.
As York's 2009 teacher of the year, Adams knows more than a little about reading. She raves about Anderson's doing a "wonderful job of helping them become better readers."
But Anderson does not like interruptions: "Now please, if you don't mind, we are reading here."
The task at hand is always reading and no visits from nosy people will stop the reading.
Two children read and need help with words such as "straight" and "laughter" - two toughies for sure when you are 6. Anderson helps both without pause, quietly, and each child loves it.
"I am so proud of you," Anderson said to both children, who beamed as if they had been elected president.
Which, maybe because of Anderson - a woman who never had children but says "all children can learn, and should" - they might be someday.
Next at the desk is Kailey Merwin, 7, who reads beautifully. Anderson follows along, upside-down with that finger, and Kailey smiles as she grasps those words that, like all first-graders, were new just a few months ago.
"Your reading is wonderful," said Anderson.
Across the hall at the same time, Pridmore - mother of Jefferson's assistant principal, Ellen Green, and a grandmother and great-grandmother to boot - works with Jessica Elliott's first-graders, one at a time.
"She is like everybody's grandmother, reading to the children," said Elliott, inside the room out of earshot of the reading instruction going on in the hallway.
The class then erupted: "We love Mrs. Pridmore!" they shouted.
DeAsia Matthews read out in the hallway, then De'Ondre Orr and others. They all read quietly, and Pridmore moved that finger and prodded at those tough words.
The word "Luke" came up. A child said "look." Pridmore did not keep going.
She stopped, talked about the word being a boy's name and how to sound it out. The little boy, 7, well, his eyes flew open wider and he read, "Luke!"
"You have it," said Pridmore to the little boy. "You have it all."
In between children, Pridmore is asked why she has come, for 20 years, to this school to sit in a hallway at a tiny desk and read with kids.
"To see them progress from the beginning of first grade to the end of the year, today, is amazing and wonderful," Pridmore said.
Both ladies plan to come back in August for year 21.
There is another reason Pridmore and Anderson continue to volunteer. Once in a while, the ladies will run into someone - a teenager or young adult - at a store or gas station or church.
The person will come up and say these words:
"You helped teach me to read in the first grade. I will never forget y
Each child reads, one-on-one, for about 10 minutes with a lady across the desk running a bony index finger over the words. The ladies read upside-down.
The fingers are bony because Pridmore's index finger is 86 years old, as is the rest of her - except for her heart and her brain.
Her heart is in the first-grade, and her brain is each day brand new with the wonder of children.
Yet next to Anderson, Pridmore is a kid. Anderson, smiling non-stop, is 89.
Anderson, retired from accounting, and Pridmore, retired from the office of a factory, have both done this - helping first-graders in reading, a skill that is the key to unlocking a future - each Thursday of the school year for 20 years.
They receive no money.
"I do it to help the children," said Anderson on Thursday morning, the last day of the year she will help with reading for Lauren Brown Adams' class.
As York's 2009 teacher of the year, Adams knows more than a little about reading. She raves about Anderson's doing a "wonderful job of helping them become better readers."
But Anderson does not like interruptions: "Now please, if you don't mind, we are reading here."
The task at hand is always reading and no visits from nosy people will stop the reading.
Two children read and need help with words such as "straight" and "laughter" - two toughies for sure when you are 6. Anderson helps both without pause, quietly, and each child loves it.
"I am so proud of you," Anderson said to both children, who beamed as if they had been elected president.
Which, maybe because of Anderson - a woman who never had children but says "all children can learn, and should" - they might be someday.
Next at the desk is Kailey Merwin, 7, who reads beautifully. Anderson follows along, upside-down with that finger, and Kailey smiles as she grasps those words that, like all first-graders, were new just a few months ago.
"Your reading is wonderful," said Anderson.
Across the hall at the same time, Pridmore - mother of Jefferson's assistant principal, Ellen Green, and a grandmother and great-grandmother to boot - works with Jessica Elliott's first-graders, one at a time.
"She is like everybody's grandmother, reading to the children," said Elliott, inside the room out of earshot of the reading instruction going on in the hallway.
The class then erupted: "We love Mrs. Pridmore!" they shouted.
DeAsia Matthews read out in the hallway, then De'Ondre Orr and others. They all read quietly, and Pridmore moved that finger and prodded at those tough words.
The word "Luke" came up. A child said "look." Pridmore did not keep going.
She stopped, talked about the word being a boy's name and how to sound it out. The little boy, 7, well, his eyes flew open wider and he read, "Luke!"
"You have it," said Pridmore to the little boy. "You have it all."
In between children, Pridmore is asked why she has come, for 20 years, to this school to sit in a hallway at a tiny desk and read with kids.
"To see them progress from the beginning of first grade to the end of the year, today, is amazing and wonderful," Pridmore said.
Both ladies plan to come back in August for year 21.
There is another reason Pridmore and Anderson continue to volunteer. Once in a while, the ladies will run into someone - a teenager or young adult - at a store or gas station or church.
The person will come up and say these words:
"You helped teach me to read in the first grade. I will never forget y
