With the ride just a little over a week away, we’re excited to feature one of our virtual riders, Michael Dakers. Mike is a member of our Emerging Leaders group, and is working on his MBA at Boston College. He has this to share:

“This is my first time participating in the Rodman ride and I could not be more excited to be supporting such an incredible organization. I became involved with Raising A Reader MA because of my interest in reading and my recognition of how much reading at a young age contributed to my development. However, it was not just my personal experience that drew me towards the organization. Raising A Reader’s model is grounded in decades of academic research. I really wanted to support an organization with a proven foundation and an intense focus on outcomes and making a measurable impact!

Recently, I offered to help out in the office doing survey data entry. One response really stuck out to me. The program partner wrote that she had one student who previously was very quiet and did not enjoy reading. After participating in the program and reading books from the red bags, she saw this student on the playground describing the stories he had read to a group of other kids. Not only had he read a few books, he had the confidence to share with others! I was very moved by this incredible story. Thank you to everyone supporting our Rodman team and Raising a Reader MA.”

Thank YOU, Mike!