FAIRBANKS - The Visqueen needs to be hung to catch spitwads. The table of fake-beard materials needs to get organized. And can anyone figure out how to make those exploding popsicle stick things?

The volunteers, men from 20-somethings to senior citizens, were preparing the auditorium of Noel Wien Library to receive dozens of fourth-grade boys for the Guys Read party on Saturday.

Tim Stallard was there early to direct the volunteers and stayed until the end — delivering pizza, drawing raffle tickets and cleaning up the wake of an afternoon of paper airplane throwing, spitwad shooting and storytelling.

Stallard joined Guys Read two years ago and coordinated it through a massive expansion to all of the borough’s fourth-grade classes.

The borough library system and the Literacy Council of Alaska began the Guys Read program four years ago to combat the trend of boys’ reading levels tapering off in late elementary school.

For four weeks, local men volunteer to read books such as “Duck Tales” and “Bone” to fourth-grade boys, the message being that reading is something that men do and is fun.

Borough Library Director Greg Hill said feedback from schools and parents has shown Guys Read has been reaching its goals — getting boys to read and getting more people to come to the library — and that Stallard is a huge reason for it.

Stallard became the program’s coordinator in its third year, as Guys Read was expanding from

10 to 18 schools. About 75 volunteers were signed up and needed to be told what schools to go to and when.

“Getting that straight, it was something critically important, and Tim did it critically well,” Hill said.

Stallard had completed a master’s in business at the time and saw the risk involved.

“A lot of businesses fail when they try to grow too fast,” he said, “so when I came in to this program, I said, ‘Hmm, doubling.’ I went into it knowing that it was a critical time for this program, and it would be easy to bust if we weren’t careful.”

The most strenuous task on Stallard’s plate was fitting the program into schools’ schedules and making sure the books, equipment and volunteers are in the right place at the right time.

“A lot of these schools are maxed out already, and then we come in with a new program,” he said.

Chores as simple as filling boxes of books and materials would escalate into a full-time job.

“Everything that seemed like a little task was just gargantuan,” he said.

But when things don’t work the way they were laid out on a spreadsheet, Stallard has the right personality to deal with it, Hill noted.

When problems arise such as a volunteer needing to call off a reading, Hill said Stallard deals with them “in a way that they don’t feel alienated, in a way that they don’t feel they’re letting anybody down.”

In fact, probably the simplest thing in the program is doing the reading itself. Stallard has noticed that the boys get involved in the story and often ask him to come back after the program is over.

“The kids are definitely the easy part,” he said. “They remind me and they remind everyone else why were doing this because they’re so enthusiastic.”

When he came to Tok 17 years ago, the adventure-seeker and waiter wasn’t apt to coordinate much.

“Organization doesn’t come to me naturally,” he said.

After a stint as a firefighter in Delta, he studied biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he eventually ran the Outdoor Adventures program for nine years.

Now self-employed as a wilderness tour guide, he said the outdoors experience taught him the essence of logistics, communication and leadership.

Those skills have helped Guys Read not only expand to the 18 elementary schools, but have helped the it grow beyond the borough.

Several schools outside FNSB have ordered what Hill calls a “program in a box” and started their own Guys Read curriculum. Stallard will travel to Nome in late March to train volunteers for an April program there.

As for locally, Hill said the next step is to take Guys Read to home-schooled children and third and fifth grades if possible.

An experimental Gals Read program took place in three schools this February, too. The library is waiting for feedback to see where that program is headed, Hill said.

Though girls’ reading levels stay strong through elementary school, Hill said they hope to enforce those habits and give young girls the chance to meet professional women.

“There’s only so much we can do,” he said, “but if we can do both, why not?”