On Thursday March 2nd the National Education Association celebrated Dr. Seuss’s birthday with the Read Across America initiative. NEA’s Read Across America is an annual reading motivation and awareness program that calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading on March 2nd, the birthday of children’s author Dr. Seuss.

In May 1997, a small reading task force at NEA came up with a big idea. “Let’s create a day to celebrate reading,” the group decided. “We hold pep rallies to get kids excited about football. We assemble to remember that Character Counts. Why don’t we do something to get kids excited about reading? We’ll call it ‘NEA’s Read Across America’ and we’ll celebrate it on Dr. Seuss’s birthday.” And so was born on March 2, 1998, the largest celebration of reading this country has ever seen.

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.
NES Website

Continuing their commitment to community service, members of the Roughrider baseball, softball, and volleyball teams volunteered at Granville Elementary School in Prescott Valley to help celebrate this special day. They spent time reading to students in kindergarten through 5th grade.

Read Across America 2017