VOLUNTEERS OF THE YEAR
The heart of a Hornet BJ and Holly McMichael have devoted their lives giving back to their hometown
STORY BY JOSEPH BROWN | PHOTOS BY MATTHEW LAHEY
For BJ and Holly McMichael , Huntsville has never been just another town . It ’ s their hometown .
“ We ’ re Hornets , our kids are Hornets and a lot of our friends are Hornets . So a lot of our life goes towards giving back to the community that made us ,” said Holly , who alongside her husband , was recently named Huntsville ’ s Volunteers of the Year .
From starting a reading initiative four years ago , to leading a historic school bond eleciton , the dynamic duo has become the heart of a city on the verge of a population boom . The McMichael ’ s grew their presence in the community over the past few years through ‘ A Time to Read ’ — a non-profit initiative that partners adult volunteers with second grade students at Huntsville ISD elementary schools .
“ I was still teaching at Scott Johnson Elementary School when we heard about a similar program in Memphis , and I knew that we wanted to bring that here ,” Holly said . “ We had three churches come together to train us on how the program works and we rolled out the pilot program at Scott Johnson from January to April 2018 .”
The organization had approximately 47 volunteers that catered to 90 students in the pilot program , almost all of which saw growth with both reading comprehension and educational confidence . That number has grown by leaps and bounds .
Holly stepped out of the classroom the following summer to lead the non-profit on a full-time basis , adding Huntsville Elementary School in the 2018-19 school year and then the remaining two campuses by the start of the following year .
“ Our goal was to be on all four campuses and we achieved that goal in just a couple of years , but then COVID hit ,” she added .
Volunteers were kept off of every campus throughout the first semester of the 2020-21 school year , but the restrictions would start to ease by January and campus leaders wanted to bring the program back in a limited capacity . However , despite issues with hands-on-learning , the McMichaels were still able to supply backpacks loaded with books to every second grade student on Huntsville ISD campuses in both 2020 and 2021 . Studies show that children who read at least six books over the summer have decreased learning loss , which is something that BJ and Holly have pledged to curtail under the program .
HUNTSVILLE LIVING | JULY-AUGUST 2021 | 19