About Us

Founded in 1997 by Pat Simons, Ready Readers is a St. Louis volunteer nonprofit organization that annually trains, places, and supervises more than 500 volunteers to read weekly to more than 7,800 preschool children from low-income communities in the St. Louis area.  The same volunteer reader always reads to the same children, allowing the children to associate a special person with the fun of reading.  Six times during each school year and once in summer, volunteer readers also give the children personalized new books to take home for further enjoyment.  During the 2011-2012 school year, Ready Readers gave more than 52,000 new, high-quality books to the children.

Watch the Ready Readers Video

Our Mission Statement

Ready Readers inspires preschool children from low-income communities to become readers by reading aloud to them and by increasing their exposure to quality books and stimulating reading-related activities.

Our Goals & Objectives

• To motivate preschool children from low-income communities to want to learn to read by regularly reading high-quality books aloud to them in a classroom setting and by giving each child at least six new, high-quality books each school year for further enjoyment at home.
• To enhance reading readiness in preschool children from low-income communities by modeling appropriate reading techniques and listening skills, as well as by teaching pre-literacy skills.
• To foster positive relationships between preschool children from low-income communities and their volunteer readers by recruiting and training passionate volunteers committed to reading aloud weekly for at least one entire semester.
• To provide preschool children from low-income communities with access to additional quality books by distributing new and gently used books to their teachers for classroom use.