Volunteering Throughout the Florida Panhandle.
Emerald Coast FURever Friends
Intermountain Therapy Animals, a nonprofit organization, launched R.E.A.D.®
in 1999 as
the first comprehensive literacy program built around the appealing
idea of reading to dogs,
and the program has been spreading rapidly and happily ever since!
The mission of the R.E.A.D. program is to improve the
literacy skills of children
through the assistance of registered therapy teams as literacy
mentors.
The Reading Education Assistance Dogs (R.E.A.D.)
program improves
children's reading and communication skills by employing a powerful method:
reading to a dog. But not just any dog. R.E.A.D. dogs are registered therapy
animals who volunteer with their owner/handlers as a team, going to schools,
libraries and many other settings as reading companions for children.
Today, thousands of registered R.E.A.D. teams work throughout
the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and beyond.