Every Wednesday, two of us leave the office, cross the bridge and gather kids from their classrooms to choose a book or two and read. They run across the playground, splash in the puddles, and pick their favorites over and over again.

There are no phones, no deadlines, no clients. Just children learning.

opus:creative sponsors its employees to volunteer on a weekly basis for the organization of their choice. We are participating in the Beech Elementary SMART program that provides one-on-one time for students who need support developing their reading skills.

After having our backgrounds cleared of any criminal activity, each of us were assigned two students to read with throughout the school year. As they reach for letters and sounds, we find the urgency of the office slip away, and find a moment where the only important thing is the turn of the page.

In September, they picked at their laces and were hesitant in the unfamiliar classroom crowded with books and grown-ups folded into child-sized chairs. Now it’s Spring, and they are jumping up to greet us and racing ahead of us on the page. We couldn’t bill this time to any job, and yet this time is more valuable than any other.

-Sarah Murray & Michaela Neet

SMART (Start Making A Reader Today), Oregon’s leading nonprofit early literacy organization, gives thousands of K-3 children the one-on-one support they need to learn to read and build brighter futures.