As volunteers working with children at Partners for Achieving School Success, they mix homework with fun activities, tackling everything from the difficult science problem to the reward of arts and crafts projects.

Operating from 2:30 to 5:15 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, PASS provides children in second through eighth grade with after-school homework help and enrichment activities ranging from nature walks to magician visits.

Between September and December, PASS enrolled 357 children.

In addition to library employees, PASS is staffed by teenage mentors like Johnson and volunteers like Babe who lend their time in a variety of ways.

Johnson, now in his third year at PASS, is one of this year's 26 paid teenage mentors.

"You learn a lot about yourself working with kids," says Johnson, who goes to Emery High School and works at Oakland's Golden Gate Branch Library. Johnson receives library-run mentor training twice a month and plans to become a teacher.

Babe is retired and has been volunteering at the Golden Gate branch since September.

"I love reading and I love words," she says. "It's really fun to work with children."

The fun is mutual, say the children. Fifth-grader Kendrea Obleton says she appreciates the extra help with her homework and the "nice" helpers.

Another fifth-grader, Manpreet Kaur, has attended PASS since 2000 and says it helps her get good grades and perform well on tests.

Many children stick with PASS during the years.

"There's a sense of the homework program being almost another family," says library assistant Sharon Vaughn Williams. "It has the advantage of getting them really connected with the library."

For more information about volunteering with Partners for Achieving School Success, call 238-3848.

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