Smart Start Helps Prepare Students for School

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Graduation rates would likely improve if more children were better prepared to start school.

A metro organization knows that all too well and is on a mission to get kids ready for the classroom. And help has arrived from an unlikely place.

A group of teenagers is in Oklahoma City this week for a mission trip. They say instead of traveling out of the country to show God's love, they decided to make a difference-- close to home.

Books are being provided that will soon be the hands of Oklahoma children.

Garrett Tindall is from Hutchinson, Kansas. He and his youth group are volunteering at Smart Start Central Oklahoma, an organization that puts books in local businesses.

"They take them to places where families might be reading with their children and we'll give them an opportunity to read together," Mary Ellis with Smart Start Central Oklahoma said.

"A lot of children, when they first come to school, they're behind and they have trouble catching up," youth group member Meara Hogan said.

Anna Borders is the group's youth minister. She says every summer the kids pick a city to do mission work and this year they choose Oklahoma City.

"Every day we do a different thing," Boarders said. "That gives them an idea of maybe something they'd like to go into when they grow older, a field they'd like to explore as both a volunteer and career."

Today may be about bundling books, but the real purpose is allowing these kids to write their own stories with hopes when they're older, they'll turn back the pages and make volunteering a way of life.

The kids are in Oklahoma for the rest of the week. Wednesday, they're going to a homeless shelter. They say that will be a good experience since they're not exposed to a lot of homelessness in their city.

The Book Bundle Project was started last fall and since then, about 5,000 books have been given away.

Find out more about the project or donate some books.