A happy reader is a lifetime reader.

A number of Wareham community members volunteered to read at Wareham elementary schools for the 22^nd annual “A Salute to Reading Is FUNdamental” read-aloud program, held Nov. 13 through 16.

The program is the Massachusetts affiliate of the national Reading in FUNdamental program.

Former schoolteacher, Wareham resident Joanne Byron, chairs the Massachusetts chapter, which is geared toward teaching kids that reading shouldn’t be confined to the classroom.

“What we are doing is promoting positive attitudes toward reading and the love of books, which will enable children to develop literacy skills,” said Byron. “Kids need motivation. How do you motivate them? Involve the community.”

Andrea Piccarelli volunteered to read at Decas Elementary, where her children go to school.

“In our family, reading is very important,” said Piccarelli. “I think videogames and TV have become a bigger consumer of children’s time.”

Byron says that her experience as a teacher taught her how to engage children who may not have the slightest interest in school, much less reading for pleasure.

“You have to find the pulse of the children. You have to know what they're interested in,” said Byron. “I don’t care what they read, as long as they pick up a book and want to. That’s how it gets started.”

Piccarelli said that if her kids want to see big-budget movies based on books such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, or Harry Potter, they must read the books first.

Piccarelli read “2 Bad Ants” to Nancy Revene’s fourth-grade class, where Piccarelli's son Josh is a student.

When some students chimed in to say they’d already read that book, Piccarelli told noted: “Every time you re-read a book, you pick up something you didn’t get before.”