ORMISTON State School has raised more than $900 for reading program Story Dogs, which helps school children improve their literacy skills.
It comes ahead of the charity's major fundraising event on Friday, where people are encouraged to dress in orange and raise money for the program.
Cleveland coordinator Amanda Farrell said Story Dogs was about making reading fun, particularly for students who had fallen behind or were not confident reading aloud.
"We know that it works, we know that their reading improves and their behaviour improves," she said.
"What makes this program unique is the dog, because essentially the child is reading to the dog.
"The dog is non-judgmental, the dog makes it very informal and doesn't care if you get a word wrong."
Ms Farrell said Story Dog volunteers were trained and then matched with a school which they would visit every week for about two hours.
"It costs about $500 to put a dog team into a school a year with the training, insurance, kit and books," she said.
"We offer sponsorship to businesses, and that's $500 a year.
"About 70 per cent of our (Redlands) teams are sponsored. The schools funding helps those teams that aren't sponsored."
The charity is halfway to their goal of helping 5000 children nationally by the end of next year.
Ms Farrell said schools were asked to participate in a fundraising day once a year to raise money for the charity. It also gave Story Dogs a chance to raise its profile.
Redland Bay state school raised more than $1000 last year. Cleveland and Capalaba rotary clubs also support the Redlands Story Dog teams.
Managing director Janine Sigley said there were over 50 schools on the Story Dogs waiting list.
"The pandemic was difficult on Story Dogs, with school closures forcing the dogs to stay in the dog house," she said.
"It's been tough for Story Dogs last year because of COVID, but now the children are back at school, we're looking forward to having more reading sessions ... "
Story Dogs day will be held on Friday, May 7.
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