Portsmouth, Va. - Heading down the hallways with the principal of Westhaven Elementary leading the way, NewsChannel 3's Kurt Williams was off to find a special student, nominated for a People Taking Action Award by the school's librarian, Gordon Jones.
"Not everyday you find children who are able to take it upon themselves to help other children," says Jones.
The student we were looking for was De'Angelo Chamblee, who had no idea why we showed up in his classroom.
We told De'Angelo his librarian sent us an email about the fourth grader's love of reading and read a portion of that email.
"But what makes this young man special is that he loves to share his passion for reading with others in his class."
Jones adds that is especially true with students who might need a little help with their reading.
"He will take his book, he will check it out, and read it to those students or he will take the book they have checked out and assist them with reading it."
De'Angelo says he has been doing this on a regular basis. We asked him why he does it.
"Because I like doing it and helping other people read."
No one asked him to do this. His reading teacher says she checked with other teachers and they told her the same thing, that De'Angelo helps other students in other classes, it's just his nature.
This was summed up in the librarian's email about De'Angelo.
"He took action to help fellow students read and become successful without having anyone to ask him to do this. To me, he is an extraordinary student and person. For those reasons we presented De'Angelo with a NewsChannel 3 People Taking Action Award, along with a $300 Visa gift card from our community partner Southern Bank.
De'Angelo credits his mom for his love of reading and his desire to help others.
