On Feb. 13, while snowfall covered Whitman’s campus in a sheet of icy white, students warmed up in Reid while Caitlin Hunsaker and Chris Eckstadt held a training session for a volunteer partnership program between Walla Walla public schools and Whitman volunteers. Hunsaker and Eckstadt work for the Walla Walla County Rural Library District and reached out last year to the StoryTime Project Leader, senior Mavie Pham, to organize training sessions between the library district’s expert storytellers to guide student volunteers. 

The Walla Walla County Rural Library District maintains and organizes all libraries within the county, aside from the Walla Walla Public Library and college libraries like Penrose at Whitman. At their workshop last week, representatives from the library district presented storytelling techniques for volunteers to engage children in elementary school classrooms. The training ranged from a sample story time presented by Eckstadt to a reminder for students to interact with kids using songs, movement activities and conversations with young students that go beyond the written words on the page. The presenters also reviewed appropriate book choices for elementary schoolers and taught volunteers how to pick a book that is a good fit, since they are responsible for selecting children’s books to read in their assigned classrooms. 

For Hunsaker and Eckstadt, the opportunity to talk to and train StoryTime volunteers also grants them the chance to get student volunteers off campus and highlight the community building qualities of shared stories. 

“You’re learning about the world around you, you’re learning that you’re part of the community,” Eckstadt said. “This is part of the community fabric that you should be a part of. It’s as important as any other extracurricular.”

According to Eckstadt, reading to kids creates a relationship between college students and elementary schoolers who are eager to share a story, even if that story only takes 15 to 30 minutes to read aloud. 

Pham echoed Eckstadt’s view — from her perspective, reading stories to kids not only gives elementary students an adult to look up to, but also gives teachers a chance to reorganize during the school day. 

“I can really see the impact it has on the kids and on the teachers. It’s 30 minutes a day, but the teachers have that time to do the things that they cannot do when it’s one teacher and 25 kids,” Pham said.

StoryTime offers Whitman students a chance to explore their role in Walla Walla and to build their skills as leaders in a classroom environment. Eckstadt and Hunsaker both feel that this connection allows Whitman students to gain experience and engage with their community in Walla Walla. 

“I think getting college students into elementary classrooms and pre-K classrooms is huge to help them to see that it’s more than just your campus and what’s directly off campus. It gives opportunities to genuinely embed themselves into the community,” Hunsaker said.

Eckstadt added that volunteering in these classrooms also develops critical soft skills, like working with a crowd of rowdy elementary-schoolers. 

“It’s about public speaking. It’s about confidence, it’s about being able to get it in front of people and speak and share that commonality of storytime. Like ‘let’s have a storytime together,’” Eckstadt said. 

Sharing stories with kids invites them to think about reading as an exciting interaction with volunteers and with the books they bring to classrooms. Hunsaker shared that reading to kids is a key part of childhood development, helping benefit them in the classroom and beyond. 

“There’s so much value in reading to children in terms of literacy and cognitive development and social-emotional learning and social skills — and just building a connection in general,” Hunsaker said.

The StoryTime volunteers engage with kids in the community by sharing stories and developing important skills for growing up, forming a crucial student-driven interest in reading. By sharing stories out loud to a classroom, these volunteers make reading more accessible and fun as they provide a break from regularly scheduled lessons. However, this break still educates and informs children in Walla Walla’s public schools. When volunteers enter a school, they select books based on student interests or requests, prioritizing books that may inspire children with a sense of wonder or empowerment. 

“There’s a phrase in the book world that books can be, and stories can be, windows, mirrors or sliding glass doors,” Hunsaker said. “A window is something that gives someone the opportunity to look at an experience that is not theirs and that’s different from theirs. A mirror is something that reflects back an experience and shows someone their own identity and represents that identity. And then a sliding glass door can allow you to open up the door and step into somebody else’s identity and experience and really learn how to honor it.” 

As volunteers select their weekly materials and prepare for more StoryTime events, they consider the impacts of each book and story shared, as well as their place in the Walla Walla community.