Winston-Salem PD makes reading “cool” with help from Cook

“Community” is a very important word around Cook. From the company’s beginning, the Cook family sought to make us more than just a facility where medical devices are manufactured. Their philosophy was the company should give back to the places that they call home.

The Winston-Salem Police Department (WSPD) has a similar focus. They wanted to be more than just law enforcers, so, in 1989, the department adopted a community-oriented policing method.

“What that means is that whenever we are doing our jobs or in the line of duty, we are community-oriented and we are about building relationships and public trust and confidence in all that we do,” said WSPD Police Chief Catrina Thompson. “Having said that, we have numerous different initiatives—so much to the point that we have actually produced a manual to share with other law enforcement agencies on the different initiatives.”

One of those initiatives, “Operation Sweet Reads,” is a mobile reading program for school-aged kids that launched in June. It has a Cook connection.

Scott Sewell, vice president of technology acquisition and development at Cook Winston-Salem, where many of our Endoscopy devices are made, is currently serving in his third year as president of the Winston-Salem Police Foundation, an organization that provides resources to help the police department create community–police partnership programs. (John Devlin, Global Brand Marketing manager for Endoscopy, is also a member of the Foundation.) In 2017, after researching similar initiatives at police departments in St. Louis and Boston, Scott pitched the Operation Sweet Reads idea to the WSPD command staff.

“We liked the idea and started figuring out how we would make it work in our community and how it would have to be done,” Chief Thompson said.

“During his presentation, Scott explained that a sizable number of third graders in Forsyth County Schools were reading below grade level,” added Pam Peoples-Joyner, a community relations specialist for WSPD. “We wanted to determine how we could help these third graders achieve their reading levels.”

Once the WSPD was on board with the idea, the Winston-Salem Police Foundation set out to raise the $150,000 needed to purchase and the renovate a vehicle. Cook Group assisted with the fund-raisingeffort, which included donations and funding from grants. The Marketing Communications team at Cook Winston-Salem also assisted, lending their talents to help design the fun and kid-friendly look of the truck.

The  vehicle is almost 35 feet long, 12 feet high, and 9 feet wide, and has an awning for outdoor reading. The truck also has a sophisticated sound system and a flat screen television that allows the WSPD to play songs and videos that are related to the books being read. Finally, there are a series of LED lights on the exterior of the truck that flash and change colors and patterns.

“When you are interacting with younger kids, with shorter attention spans, you need a lot of different stuff to keep them engaged,” said Lieutenant Brian Dobey, Chief Thompson’s staff liaison.

So, the “Reads” part of the name is pretty self-explanatory. The “twist” to this reading program is the “Sweet” part—participants receive ice cream, in addition to a free book, after taking part.

“We want people to realize that the ice cream is just one small part of it,” Lt. Dobey said. “It’s just the reward after we get them reading a book and give them the book. The ice cream is just the catalyst to get the excitement, but we want people to realize the truck is here to increase literacy.”

How the program works

Less than six months into the program, Operation Sweet Reads is still being run almost exclusively by the WSPD’s Community Resources Unit, which includes Peoples-Joyner. They move the truck from location to location and do most of the reading (though Chief Thompson read the first book at the program’s unveiling). Plans are in the works to get more volunteer readers from the community and the WSPD. It takes at least two or three people to smoothly run each reading session.

The truck has been a hot commodity since it was unveiled, so the WSPD takes care to ensure that it is rotated throughout the entire community on a regular basis.

“Our Community Resources Unit already has a lot of established community events that are going on throughout the year, so we will try to schedule that truck for those events first,” said Lt. Dobey, who is also one of the unit’s supervisors.  “If we don’t have anything in that particular area, we will try to pick a rec center or a large church or something that has the capability of hosting a lot of people that is located in that area. We try to the schedule out eight weeks at a time to let people know where the truck is going to be. And when we do come back to that side of town we try to not set up in the same place.”

Peoples-Joyner said she and her team have thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

“The reading really is fun,” she said. “The individuals in our unit, we are really animated, so we not only just read—we dance and act out the characters while we are reading to the youth.”

Some of her favorite books so far include The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Suess and the Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Park.

While the Operation Sweet Reads idea originally focused on elementary school kids, it has been expanded to ensure that there are reading materials suitable for all ages—and that sometimes includes parents.

“I had a mother who brought her child on the truck for a tour and I was reading to the young lady and she said she was really excited because she had not been read to since school ended and her teacher would read to her,” Peoples-Joyner said. “The mother asked me if she could have a chapter book so she could continue to read a chapter every night to her daughter. She wanted her daughter to realize that her mom could read to her, not just her school teacher.

“It is actually overwhelming when something like that happens, because sometimes you think ‘Are we really just giving away ice cream?’” she continued. “But to know that people really appreciate the books and appreciate the initiative—that really makes you feel like you are making a difference.”