Each year, Seymour High School teacher Tim Perry gives his speech students the option of reading a children’s book as part of one of the class assignments.
Those who do so read the book to their classmates and Perry as part of an oral interpretation.
Over the holidays while listening to Columbus-based radio station QMIX 107.3, he heard an advertisement for QMIX Story Time with the Q Wake-Up Crew.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, QMIX personalities have opted to read to a class live through Zoom or via a personalized video that can be played any time rather than visit a different school each month. Teachers can sign their class up via an online form, and a winner is announced on the first Friday of the month.
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For February, Perry’s advanced speech and communication class was selected.
On March 23, Patra Jones and Brittany Gray read "The Night is for Darkness" by Jonathan Stutzman and answered questions from Perry and his class.
"When I heard your commercial over the holidays, of course it rang in my ears ‘Children’s book reads, oral interpretations,’ so I thought that would be good to kind of incorporate in my curriculum," Perry told Jones and Gray.
After Jones and Gray read the book, Perry asked if they could include a copy of it for him to borrow in the Book Lovers gift bag that’s given to each month’s winner. He was going to use it as a sample when he introduces the oral interpretation assignment later this school year.
When they told Perry he could keep the book along with other books in the gift bag, he was shocked. He then paused to have him and his students give Jones and Gray a round of applause.
"Fantastic!" he exclaimed. "My goodness! Incredible!"
Perry said after finishing the oral interpretations, he usually has his top readers take a walking field trip to Emerson Elementary School to read to third-graders. He, however, isn’t sure if that will be possible this year.
"I haven’t decided on that yet," he said. "But for sure, their speaking experience is going to be oral interpretations, and one of the choices for that would be to read a children’s book to their classmates and me."
Jones said she likes reading dramas and thrillers and used to run a Book Buddies program, while Gray likes reading fantasy books and formerly worked at Waldenbooks, so they both like being involved with QMIX Story Time.
"I love it," said Jones, promotions director for the radio station and morning show host with Gray. "I used to work at an elementary school, and I have a couple of teenagers. Being at QMIX was a total fluke for me, so I really felt I was going to end up working in child care or education or with children. It’s just where I like to be."
Gray, also the operations manager for Reising Radio Partners Inc., said the goal at QMIX is to be more than just a radio station.
"We want to be your friend. We want you to feel like you know us, and we want to feel like we know you," she said. "If we go into schools and meet the kids or even Zoom with the kids, it’s just a really great way to kind of create a connection. I think it’s really important for a small station to just connect like that with the community."
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To sign up for a chance to win QMIX Story Time with the Q Wake-Up Crew, visit qmix.com/story-time-with-the-q-wake-up-crew.
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