Twice a week, the hum of voices echo through Bishop Elementary School halls, announcing the volunteer tutoring session are in full swing.

Mayflower Church Pastor Paul Ramsey suggested enlisting tutoring volunteers to Bishop Principal Linda McCaslin.

Ramsey said he and the congregation saw this as a way to help the students at the community school.

The program was launched in January and has grown as additional volunteers stepped forward as tutors.

Now, there are tutors who spend part of each Tuesday and Thursday evening helping 10 to 15 children a night improve their reading skills. The 45-minute session are either one-on-one or a teacher working with two students.

Former teacher Juliana Powell doesn’t attend Mayflower Church but asked to join the program because she said she loves kids and saw tutoring as way to give back to the community.

Across the room, Carolyn Clayburg tutored Tina Selimagic and Yoselin Salas.

Selimagic said she volunteered to come to the tutoring sessions because she was having a little trouble reading and with her fluency.

She explained her family is Bosnian and speak only their native language at home but she has to speak English in school.

“The tutoring has helped me a lot as I try to do better in English,” she said. “It also helps me as I teach my dad about English.

Salas said she too was having a little trouble with English. She said the tutoring helped her learn and understand new words and that helped her read better.

But it isn’t all work. The first 30 minutes are devoted to music. Randy Runyon, a music teacher in Denver Public Schools, teaches the students about rhythm and musical beats by guiding them as they turn plastic buckets and even a wash tub into drumming instruments. The room and the halls echo with the rhythmic beats they produce as the session’s best percussion section.

Runyon said he attends Mayflower Church and, when the pastor presented the idea he immediately signed up to volunteer to help.

He said he teaches middle school and looks forward to working the younger kids twice a week. He said he has fun with the sessions and tries to make sure the kids have fun as they learn about rhythm and musical beats.

After music, it’s time to eat. Each week, a volunteer takes his or her turn to provide what is needed to make a light meal for the students.

Once everyone has finished eating, the students adjourn to the classroom to spend time with the tutor working on reading.

Bishop student Nichole Rains was working on her reading skills during a recent session and she said the tutoring sessions have helped her read a lot better.

“The tutoring is awesome,” the girls said. “I learn better working one-on-one. It’s quieter so it’s easier to concentrate here than in class and it’s a lot easier to ask questions. On a scale of one to 10, I’d rate my improvement as a reader as a nine.”