Young Readers Share Doughnuts and Dads

Pete Casas and his daughter, Alysia, 10, snuggled in a love seat in the Darby Elementary School library Friday morning to read “Amphibians: Creatures of the Land and Water.”

Around the library, groups of dads and kids pored over books as they sipped juice and munched doughnuts during the school’s second annual Dads and Donuts reading program.

“I think this is a very healthy program,” said Casas, of Northridge.

“Except for the doughnuts,” quipped Alysia, a fifth-grader.

“It gives children time to spend with their fathers away from the house and away from the phone,” Casas said. “I don’t get as much time as I’d like to spend with her, so special times like these are wonderful.”

Spencer Marks, a divorced father from Mission Hills, said he values the time he spends with his daughter Jillian, 10, and son Garrett, 7.

“I only spend 50% of the time with them, and I would like to spend 100% of the time,” Marks said. “For me, this is an opportunity to create memories for them that they can carry into adulthood.”

When Morton Steinman of Northridge asked for the morning off so he could attend the reading program, he said his boss was encouraging.

“That was a great thing,” said Steinman, adding that his colleagues said they respected and admired him for taking the time to be with his daughter Yvette, a 9-year-old fourth-grader.

“In today’s society dads are included in activities that years ago they weren’t necessarily considered a part of,” he said. “Nowadays, dads can do a lot with their children.”

Friday’s event, which school officials said drew 75 to 100 fathers, was the culmination of a weeklong program designed to promote reading as well as celebrate National Children’s Literacy Week.

Principal Noney O’Banion said the reading program helps fathers to connect with the school beyond the traditional back-to-school night or parent-teacher conferences.

“It’s a fun thing,” she said. “The program gives the fathers a chance to be part of their children’s education.”