Buddy's Helpers and Dulles Elementary celebrate reading success with special outing
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Five months ago, they didn't even have a school library.
But today, students from one South Side elementary school celebrated their reading success.
They made "big league" progress and were surprised with a special outing. CBS 2's Sara Machi shows us how far they've come.
Students line the hall at Dulles Elementary School with signs, and smiles, ready to root, root, root for their classmates who have made some major strides.
These are some of the Dulles all-stars who have logged thousands of reading hours, being celebrated for their success.
But to see how far they've come, you have to flip back to the beginning of this story.
Just a few months ago, local high school athletes from several suburban schools and the group Buddy's Helpers collected a thousand books and built two dozen mini libraries in the school's classrooms, since they didn't have a school library of their own.
And teachers said it lead to a big boost in reading overall.
"We only had two or three kids at grade level. And now we have about 14 in our class by the end of the year, which is amazing. And so much props to them and their families, because I would not have been able to see that growth without them," said first grade teacher Sam Elster.
To celebrate, championship trophies for teachers, pizza for some classes and for a select few that hit it out of the park.
"Well guess what? In a couple of hours, you're going to go to the White Sox games with a couple of your friends from school. You want to go to the baseball game," asked organizer Joe Trost.
They're hitting the road, some headed to their first White Sox game. A home run ending to the school season.
Buddy's Helpers has been doing monthly surprises for school kids around the area since December 2015, but this was their first pilot program where they were involved with a single school for an entire year.
The organization said the results speak for themselves. Some of these students here are now reading at a higher level than 80% of their peers nationally.