NORTHAMPTON — It’s late morning inside Laura Mangones’ kindergarten classroom at Bridge Street Elementary School, and the children have all gathered around attentively on a small carpet in front of the classroom, small strips marking where each student is assigned to sit. In walks Mac Everett, known as “Mr. Mac” to the kindergartners as he sits down and pulls out two children’s books the students have read previously: “Doctor De Soto” by William Steig and “The Tawny Scrawny Lion” by Kathryn Jackson.

“There was something about these books that reminded me of each other. Why did I keep thinking of the two of them together?” Everett ponders to the students. “Anybody have any ideas about that?”

The answer, of course, is that both books feature a small animal who is faced with the prospect of being eaten by a larger animal and comes up with a solution to their problem. But while the mouse in “Doctor De Soto” gives his fox patient a sticky potion to glue his mouth shut, the rabbit in “The Tawny Scrawny Lion” feeds the lion carrot stew so he is no longer hungry.

This lesson in comparing and contrasting different elements in separate narratives is one of several imparted by Everett, a volunteer from the Volunteers in Northampton Schools or VINS program. Since 1981, VINS has served as a way to bring the greater community into the classroom, enriching kids’ education with additional perspectives and insights.

The program is a natural fit for some one like Everett, a retired kindergarten teacher who understands the needs that come with working with children of that age group.

“I’ve always been interested in that age group because of particular qualities about it, the willingness to suspend disbelief and the openness and the enthusiasm that you get,” Everett said. “I read to the kids, and that sometimes involves an extended conversation about what’s happening in the book. I also talk a little bit to the kids about nature, the seasons, about things that are happening out in the world.”

The VINS program has its origins in an education committee within the local branch of the League of Women Voters, who became interested in having volunteers to help out within the school district. Margaret Riddle, herself working as a teacher at the time, was one of the members of that committee.

“We connected with a school volunteer program in Springfield that was well established and had procedures in place, and they worked with us saying here’s how you could do it,” Riddle said. “We started in the middle of the school year, and within a few months we had what Springfield had told us was the saturation point for how many volunteers we could expect. That’s how fast it took off.”

As someone who moved around several school districts in the Midwest before arriving in the Pioneer Valley, Riddle said she understood that educators don’t always have the time or opportunity to become embedded within the communities they serve. The VINS program, she said, allows for that possibility of community outreach, as well as having additional helping hands for curricular activities they otherwise would not be able to cover.

“There’s this wealth of information out there that can enrich whatever curriculum you’re trying to deliver,” Riddle said. “Someone will help you make those contacts, because you don’t have the time to do it yourself and you don’t necessarily have the context.”

Under the program, teachers make requests to VINS if they feel they need a volunteer to assist with whatever subject matter they’re working on with their students. VINS then conducts outreach within the community to find possible volunteers who can help meet those requests. The program is available for all grade levels, from kindergarten to 12th grade.

Presently, there are about 29 volunteers who work within the Northampton Public School District’s six schools, according to VINS coordinator Andres Cucalon.

“We get some volunteers from the different colleges and universities, and we get some volunteers from the community,” Cucalon said. “We help get them involved, we do the process of the background check, we call references and make sure everything is correct so they can go inside the schools.”

Though Everett formerly worked in public education, he emphasized that an educational background was not necessary for those looking to be a part of the program.

“It’s really about connecting with a teacher, getting to know each other, being sensitive to what the teacher’s doing,” Everett said. “Kindergarten has definitely changed in a lot of ways since I taught it. I’m learning a lot of new things too, but I wouldn’t want to overplay the idea that this is something that only people with the right experience teaching could do, because that’s not right.”

Continuing with the lesson in Mangones’ classroom, Everett invites the students to journey with him to the “Land of F,” where they learn about the phonics of and words that start with the sixth letter of the alphabet. There’s plenty of “food” in the Land of F, like “fruit” and “fries,” so long as they eat it with a “fork.”

Everett then reads the students another book, fittingly titled “Frederick,” about a mouse who goes by that name. While the other mice work to gather food for the winter, Frederick instead gathers the memories and sensations of the sunlight and the words to put those feelings to poetry. While the other mice originally question his activities, Frederick’s poems end up providing much-needed comfort to them during the cold winter months.

“That’s the story of a mouse who didn’t help the way the others were helping,” Everett tells the students. “But he helped in his own special way.”

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.