 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Joel is everyone's little reading buddy |
| BL » News » Joel is everyone's little reading buddy |
|
December 26, 2003 |
| |
This article by Frank Haight Jr. was reprinted with permission from the Dec. 26, 2003, edition of The Examiner in Independence, Mo. (frank.haight@examiner.net).
Sitting in an overstuffed chair in her room at the Independence Health Care Center [Beverly Healthcare-Independence], Thelma Huff smiled as she looked into the face of 6-year-old Joel Ison. He stood beside her chair doing what he loves to do best. Read.
Wearing a burnt orange and blue Joe Boxer football jersey, new blue jeans, and white and blue light-up shoes, Joel read from his favorite book, "Lucky Goes to School."
Reading slowly, Joel pronounced each word distinctly and clearly in his soft, boyish voice. Only once did he stumble. But after Thelma pronounced the word for him, he continued reading as though nothing had happened.
"He's a good reader," Thelma said as Joel finished the story. "I always enjoy Joel, my little friend."
Thelma isn't alone. So do the other residents at the Independence Health Care Center, where Joel's mother, Lisa Ison, is a rehabilitation aide.
Joel is no stranger to the residents at the center, where his mother has worked for the past 3-1/2 years. He has been accompanying her to work since he was 3 and knows many of the residents by name. "He feels very comfortable here," Lisa said.
A first grader at Tri-City Christian School, Joel is anything but shy. He loves the residents and they love him. "If he is not here, they ask where he is, and I tell them he is in school," Lisa said.
"He's like a grandson to many of them," she said, recalling residents often ask her if Joel can come out on weekends and visit them.
Joel loves spending time at the center, which he calls the "Grandma and Grandpa House." And he never misses an opportunity to go, before school, after school or on the weekends.
Lisa describes her son as a "very caring little boy" who is very sensitive to the residents and their needs. Outside, she says, Joel is all boy. But inside the center, he's a loving, caring and sensitive boy. "If they ask for a hug, he will give them one," Lisa said, regardless of who asks or what they look like.
Joel is therapy for the residents, who Lisa says love to get up close to him so they can hug him. And the men like to rub his "burr head."
Before Joel began reading to the residents in November, he enjoyed playing such games as tic-tac-toe, checkers and dominoes with them. He also would collect their bibs after meals.
Wanting to help her son improve his reading, Lisa asked Joel if he would like to come out to the center and read to the residents.
Joel accepted the challenge. The day after Thanksgiving, he brought his favorite animal books to the dining room and began reading to the residents as they waited for their dinner trays.
After dinner, Joel spent two hours going around the "Grandma and Grandpa House" reading to anyone who would listen.
Sometimes Joel gets special requests. Like the time a nurse asked him to read to a resident who was upset. Joel did and the resident responded. He rubbed Joel's crew-cut hair and said, "You are so cute."
Afraid to read? Not Joel! He likes to read, he says, because it "makes me happy."
A big heart? There's none bigger than Joel's. He wanted to adopt some families for Christmas and donate food to Harvesters to feed the poor and needy.
"Next year we will adopt a family," his mom said.
Lisa says Joel is making great strides in his reading. "He struggled with his reading at first, but he has improved a lot" since he began honing his reading skills at the center.
Keep up the good work, Joel. Your love, care and concern for others has made the world a better place in which to live.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|