{"id":360238,"date":"2026-08-01T20:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T20:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/360238\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T20:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T20:38:10","slug":"florida-boy-becomes-first-participant-to-reach-100-hours-reading-to-shelter-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/360238\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida boy becomes first participant to reach 100 hours reading to shelter dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 An 11-year-old Florida boy became the first person to log 100 hours reading to shelter dogs through the humane society’s pawsitive reading program.<\/a><\/p>\n

According to CNN and the Jacksonville Humane Society<\/a>, sixth-grader Nehemiah Turner has spent the past two years visiting the shelter once or twice a week, reading books about animals and sports to dogs waiting for their forever homes.<\/p>\n

Nehemiah said he first discovered the program on Read Across America Day<\/a> when his grandmother took him to the shelter. His first reading partner was a dog named Augie.<\/p>\n

“I cried after I had to leave,” Nehemiah said. “I cried because I didn’t want to leave the dog, and I wanted to adopt it already.”<\/p>\n

See also: Waterfront restaurant says abandoned sailboat is damaging property<\/a><\/p>\n

While he wasn’t able to adopt Augie, Nehemiah continued returning to the shelter, where his reading sessions help socialize dogs and make them more comfortable around people, increasing their chances of being adopted, according to the Jacksonville Humane Society.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit said more than 3,000 people have participated in the Positive Reading program since it launched, but Nehemiah is the first to reach the 100-hour milestone.<\/p>\n

“Truly astonishing accomplishment for an 11-year-old,” a Jacksonville Humane Society representative told CNN. “In our ever more connected world, so many people forget what it feels like to just hold a book in your hands and turn the pages. It’s really, really inspiring to see that from a young person.”<\/p>\n

Nehemiah isn’t stopping there. His next goal is to reach 500 hours reading to shelter dogs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 An 11-year-old Florida boy became the first person to log 100 hours reading to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-360238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}