Have you seen Rottie around? Local Real Estate Agent Grant Wells is realizing his vision of bringing the joy of literacy to children all over Forsyth County.

Grant’s vision of “Reading with Rottie” began when he was mentoring students and he experienced first hand what a difference one person can make in the life of a child. He decided he would try to reach more children by coming up with a reading program. With mentoring being a much-needed program in our schools, Grant is able to reach more children than he ever imagined.

Sawnee Primary students were asked what some of their favorite things were of the year; “Reading with Rottie” was one of them. The students at Sawnee Primary look forward to “Reading with Rottie” because they know they will have fun all the while learning something valuable in the process.

In addition to going into the school and reading, “Rottie” has been in the Cumming Fourth of July parade 2003 where he handed out over 400 “Reading with Rottie” T-shirts and over 200 books to children in the crowd.

“Rottie” was also invited to hand out over 2,500 books in October of 2003 at the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International. It is part of the Forsyth Community Care Outreach where over 1,700 people showed up to take part of the ministry that was available to all.

“Rottie” was at the Cumming Fairgrounds in October 2003 with CASA in order to help bring attention to their booth.

“Rottie” has been at Sawnee Primary’s Sock Hop for the last two years and was one of the two acts that participated at Sawnee Primary’s “Reading Pajama Party.”

“Rottie” visited Dawsonville Elementary School and read to their students in 2003.

The “Reading with Rottie” program was awarded the Volunteer of the Year Award 2003-2004 through Forsyth County for all of the Elementary Schools. This award was presented by Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce. This award was given to the program over hundreds of volunteers that participate in the Partners in Education

Most recently, “Rottie” was invited to take a ride in a helicopter where it landed at Sawnee Primary and helped the children celebrate meeting their reading goal for the year. After receiving cheers from hundreds of children the students were let into the Gym where “Rottie and his helper read a book about helicopters to the entire school.

Grant loves watching the eyes of students light up when “Rottie” walks in a room. He believes that if this program can open the eyes of just one child to the reading experience that they may otherwise not receive from home and in some cases the classroom , it will be well worth his time and effort.

The vision is to reach as many children as possible. We are actively looking for individuals and or businesses who might like to make a tax deductible donation to help continue with the demand for this program. If you are interested, please call Grant at 770-844-5539. or see his website at www.grantwellssells.com