Costco stops by Lakeview to launch Volunteer Reading Program at the school

On Wednesday afternoon, a class of Grade 3 students at Lakeview Elementary School enjoyed a pizza party.
If that’s not enough of a reason to celebrate, the group of volunteers from Lethbridge’s Costco location also launched a new reading program at the school while students enjoyed their lunch.
The program will run for 12 weeks and will help students enjoy reading and build their reading skills. Costco’s Volunteer Reading Program has been helping students for over 20 years in Canada, the United States and Australia.
“The reading program is something that Costco has been behind for years and years and years,” said Mary Gage, front end supervisor at Lethbridge’s Costco location. “This is probably, I'm going to guess, our fourth or fifth school. The program has evolved immensely, and we just want to reach out and help out where we can.”
She explained Costco is passionate about giving students a little boost when it comes to literacy.
“We work with kids that are kind of almost, not falling through the cracks, but just need a little bit more attention - a little more one on one. So, this is something just to help them succeed.”
Costco employees are critical to the success of the program, according to Gage.
“They do it on their own time,” said Gage of the store’s volunteer readers, who will be in the Grade 3 classroom every Wednesday until April 9.
Costco is piggybacking on a backpack program set up at Lakeview last year, and planned a pizza party to kick off the new partnership with the school.  
“Our volunteers are bringing pizza and juice and snacks, just to kind of do a little meet and greet and get to know everybody and all that good stuff,” said Gage. “We're always excited to do it.”
Unique to Lakeview, Costco has agreed to expand the scope of the program to ensure all students in Susan Christie’s classroom, not just a small group, benefit from a strengthened connection with literacy.