An NJIT Senior Gives Children the Gift of Literacy: They Give Him Thanks

As the holiday season dawns, let us give thanks to those who worked hardest over the past year to help others. And perhaps no student worked harder this year to help others than Maplewood’s Tamer Marshood, an NJIT senior who possesses the mind of an engineer and the heart of a Samaritan.

Tamer’s effort s created the nonprofit group, “Feeding by Reading,” which is working with the Irvington schools to give children books and encourage them to read and to help others: For each book a child reads, a sponsor can make a donation to the group’s website -- money that goes to fund the local food pantry.

So in essence, thanks to Tamer, children in an urban school district with a high poverty rate are reading more and becoming more literate. Not only that, but their reading translates directly into feeding hungry people in their own community. The children are not only increasing their capacity to read but also their capacity for what is perhaps humanity’s most ennobled emotion: Compassion.

On a recent afternoon, Robert Florida, an NJIT writer, visited the Mount Vernon Avenue School, one of eight Irvington elementary schools to have adopted “Feeding by Reading.” The corridor walls are lined with artwork and the building is clean and newly renovated. It has high ceilings and a skylight through which natural light floods into classrooms, where children sit raptly listening to their teachers.

The school principal, Shakira Miller Harrington, is a tall woman, a former athlete whose 100-watt smile comes easily and often as she talks about her students, who she refers to warmly as “our scholars.” Harrington herself is a scholar: she graduated from Blair Academy and Rutgers and is now working on her Ph.D. at Columbia University’s Teachers College. And here is what she has to say about Tamer’s effort to help her school:

“I’m extremely thankful to Mr. Tamer,” she says. “What he’s done to help our scholars warms my heart, especially during the holiday season, a season of giving. There’s no greater gift you can give a child than to encourage him or her to read. Reading is the most fundamental and essential skill and when you help children deepen their love of reading, you’ve given them a great start in life.”

Down the hall and up the stairs is the school library, a large, open and well-lighted room filled with shelves of books. The school’s librarian is perched on a stool, reading aloud. Before her, on the carpeted floor, a group of students sit quietly, their faces upturned to hers and transfixed by her words.

In the rear of the room, at a yellow table, four girls sit together reading quietly. All of them have books donated by Tamer. And all of them love to read. And all of them are grateful to “Mr. Tamer.”

Yumery De la Cruz, a fifth grader, says she loves the book that she was given -- “The Garden of Eve” -- through “Feeding by Reading.”

“Reading is fun, “says Yumery, in a voice that is barely audible. “But my dream is to help other people, and when I read now I help people who don’t have food.”

Destiny Wallace, another fifth grader, agrees with Yumery. The best thing about “Feeding by Reading,” she says, is that every time she reads a book a person at the local food pantry is likely to get a meal. And she’s enjoying the book she’s currently reading, “The Skin I’m In,” which is about a girl who learns to love her skin color.

Ryanna Patrick is a fourth grader, a small-framed girl with glasses and a gap-toothed smile that can melt your heart, which she does when she tells you a about her life and her family and her goals in life.

“My goal is to help people,” says Ryanna. “Right now I help my family. My older sister has two babies and I babysit for them. My 11 year-old brother has muscular dystrophy and I help my parents take care of him. I had surgery and the doctor really helped me. That’s why I want to be a doctor when I grow up, so I can help people. That’s why I like Mr. Tamer. He gives us books and when we read them we help to feed people who don’t have any food. And that is very nice.”