KU Student-Athletes and Staff Participate in Read Across America Day

March 11, 2011

LAWRENCE, Kan. –

Read Across America Day is an annual reading motivation and awareness program developed by the National Education Association. The program calls for each child in every community across the nation to celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss.

Through the Jayhawks Give Back community outreach program, over 20 KU student-athletes and staff volunteered at Hilltop Child Development Center for the University of Kansas. Every hour a different representative from KU Athletics would surprise a classroom by reading several books, as well as participating in regular classroom activities. The main challenge was not getting tongue-tied while reading the cleverly-worded Seuss books.

Pat Pisani, the Executive Director of Hilltop said, “Special thanks go out to all of the Athletics department staff, coaches and student-athletes who took time out of their busy schedules this week to visit Hilltop classrooms and read to our ‘Little Jayhawks’. The kids loved their special visitors and enjoyed sharing some of their Dr. Seuss’ birthday fun with them. Our visitors learned about our ‘Little Jayhawk’ world and we all learned what thoughtful neighbors we have in Athletics.”

Read Across America Day was celebrated in all 50 states with over 3.2 million teachers participating in the program. NEA stated, “Motivating children to read is an important factor in student achievement and creating lifelong successful readers. Research has shown that children who are motivated and spend more time reading do better in school.”

KU Athletics is committed to its community and events like Read Across America provide a great opportunity for student-athletes and staff members to actively engage in the educational experience of Lawrence area youth.

For more information about Read Across America, click here:

http://www.seussville.com/Educators/educatorReadAcrossAmerica.php

http://www.nea.org/grants/886.htm