A Pasco County student was recently honored by the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy for helping a 7-year-old improve on his reading.
Dylan O’Neil, 17, and 7-year-old Paul Twardzik were brought together with words. Their relationship didn’t quite start as sweet as you may think.
O’Neil plays basketball at Ridgewood High School so reading to young children was the last thing on his mind. But with a little nudging O’Neil decided to give it a try and the two now share a secret hand shake and share a favorite reading topic. “Bats and dinosaurs,” said Twardzik.
“I like them too Paul,” said O’Neil.
The two met every Friday outside under the shade of trees, getting to know each other and discovering new stories they could share. Despite the 10 year age difference the two became friends.
“We’re friends, buddies,” said Twardzik.
If you ask O’Neil, Twardzik was also a teacher himself. “Paul teaches me how to be a better person,” he said.
Recently O’Neil was recognized for what he’s done for Twardzik with the Teen Trendsetters Excellence Award.
“It is an honor for me to present the first Ridgewood recipient of the teen trendsetters award for leadership and service to Dylan O’Neil,” said the program coordinator, Kimberly Bondi at the school assembly.
“He grew up because of me a little bit, so I feel like I helped him out you know,” said O’Neil.
It’s that help that will follow both of them through the next chapters of their lives.
Since the inception of the program over 40,000 students have benefited from it in Florida alone.
The program started in Florida in 2002. Since then students have worked over 300,000 hours and have received more than 230,000 books for their own at home library.