Although Anita Schumacher of Whitefish and Lynnette Ludviksen of Columbia Falls graduated from high school years ago, they have returned to the halls of high school to read with sophomores at Flathead High School.

Schumacher and Ludviksen are adult mentors for America Reads/FHS Reads.

Mentors and students meet for an hour once a week over 10 weeks to read, discuss books or talk about their daily lives. Reading is the conversation starter between adult and teen — the bridge that connects the community to students, Schumacher said.

The program is based on the federal America Reads Challenge Act of 1997.

Since it was implemented at the school in 1999, it has evolved from helping at-risk students to going mainstream with a new focus to promote reading for enjoyment, according to Kane Hines, program coordinator, and Michele Paine, assistant principal.

“What we emphasize is that reading can be a positive part of your life,” Paine said.

Students usually choose what the pair will read. In the library on Tuesday, Schumacher and 15-year-old Michelle Reed each hold books with black covers, gray text and the words “My Big Fat Manifesto” in hot pink.

“It’s about an overweight girl who’s writing newspaper articles for her school to try to get a scholarship and like telling about how it really is to be overweight,” Reed said.

Reed joined the reading program because it sounded fun and to add activities on her college application. After reading some text, the two talk about it.

Reed is the third student Schumacher has mentored over the past five years. She still keeps in touch with some of her mentees.

“I love reading and for me, reading kind of opens the door even if you can’t travel, for example, you can read about things and learn. You can just learn so much,” Schumacher said.

Ludviksen has participated in the program for 1 1/2 years. This year, 15-year-old Kaitlin Martinez is reading with her.

“Reading is one of my favorite things to do. I used to tutor second-graders in reading and I thought it would be fun to work with older students,” Ludviksen said. “I have really enjoyed getting tto know the high school students. It’s nice to know from my standpoint that I’m doing something that is helping a student succeed.”

Martinez said she joined America Reads/FHS Reads to get back in the habit of reading in her leisure time.

“I joined because I used to read a lot — like all the time — constantly reading — and I stopped for awhile and I never really got back into it until I joined. It really helped me get back to reading,” Martinez said.

In addition to discussion, both Ludviksen and Martinez write in journals after each chapter. Mentors usually change up what they do as activities, depending on the students with whom they are working.

“This is the first time I’ve journaled with a student and maybe if Kaitlin and I do this again next semester we might not journal, we might just read and talk about it,” Ludviksen said.

Bookmarks between the pink covers of “Perfect” by Natasha Friend show they are almost finished with the book they are reading.

“We’re pretty close it’s getting pretty exciting,” Ludviksen said.

The book centers around one family’s grief after the father dies and how the relationship between a mother in denial and daughter (who develops an eating disorder) disintegrates. Hines said the program often introduces books mentors might not normally read and vice versa. By the end of the semester, the adults and teens usually have changed perceptions of each other and of different book genres, Hines added.

The program currently has 15 mentor volunteers for the semester and will accept new volunteers for the next semester.

“I hope I get to work with Kaitlin next semester,” Ludviksen said.

“Heck, yeah,” Martinez replied.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at [email protected].