When Rebekah Richey returned to Goldsboro Elementary Magnet School in Sanford, Florida, as a volunteer, she had already spent years teaching there. Now retired from Seminole County Public Schools, she still drives from Altamonte Springs to read with students, Spectrum News reported Oct. 27. The weekly Nanas, Papas and Friends program brings family members and other community volunteers into the school to share books with children.
Richey told Spectrum she started the effort in her own classroom after seeing students who needed more one-on-one support. She thought volunteers could give children additional time to read. From that start, the idea grew into a weekly program. Spectrum’s Oct. 27 report also spoke with Goldsboro principal Chris Mulholland and volunteer Susan Mullally, who joined about four years ago.
The weekly visits pair volunteers with kindergarten and first-grade students for reading time. Spectrum reported that the program is meant to help children build confidence and strengthen reading skills. A 2025 SCPS profile describes the same one-to-one reading or tutoring format for kindergarten and first-grade children, offered for one to three hours a week.
The program’s name sounds like it might be limited to grandparents, but it welcomes other community members, too. Goldsboro principal Dr. Chris Mulholland told Spectrum that children are excited to see a familiar “Nana, Papa or friend” arrive to read. He said the readers are people who volunteer, not necessarily a student’s relative.
Susan Mullally, a retired school counselor, is one of those volunteers. She told Spectrum that Richey encouraged her to join about four years ago. The report describes a program sustained not only by its founder but also by volunteers who return week after week. Mullally said she has deep respect for Richey’s dedication to teaching children and serving the community.
Richey’s connection to Goldsboro began before the reading program. An SCPS educator spotlight published in December 2025 says she earned a master’s degree in ECE and Education. It traces her teaching career through two years in Alexandria, Virginia, five in Louisville, Kentucky, and a role as co-director and teacher at a multicultural preschool and daycare in Queens, New York. The district records her teaching at Goldsboro from 1998 to 2014. Spectrum’s Oct. 27 report says she has since returned as a volunteer. The profile also said Richey continued part-time tutoring through Unity Youth Association’s Sanford after-school program.
The district’s 2025 profile says Richey created Nanas, Papas & Friends about 25 years earlier. That is the district’s retrospective description, not a precise founding date. It described volunteers reading or tutoring kindergarteners and first-graders one-to-one for one to three hours a week, at either Goldsboro or Unity Youth Association. Spectrum’s 2026 report confirms weekly reading at Goldsboro; it does not say whether the older profile’s second site still hosts the program.
In the same December 2025 spotlight, SCPS said she volunteered at least 20 hours a month organizing and participating in the reading program. The profile also listed at least 15 monthly hours with the Picnic Project, serving people experiencing nutritional needs; 10 to 12 hours with her church’s mission team; and at least three hours with Goldsboro Front Porch. It described her helping deliver stuffed animals to the Goldsboro fire station with retired educators and said she would volunteer with additional deliveries. The profile identified her as the retired educators association’s volunteer-services chair. These figures and roles are from that 2025 profile, not a current schedule.
A listing on the Seminole County Volunteers! Meetup page scheduled a reading session at Goldsboro for Oct. 28 from 9:15 to 11 a.m. It described a weekly one-to-one reading opportunity and named Richey as the volunteer contact. The group’s listing is not a school or district record, and it documents the scheduled time and place rather than confirming who attended or whether the session went ahead.
Richey told Spectrum she “fell in love with Goldsboro” and still makes the drive from Altamonte Springs because the work remains important to her. The weekly reading visits are a simple kind of school support: an adult, a child and time set aside to read together.
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