Read Across America Day

Save the Date: NEA's Read Across America Day Is March 3, 2008!

Read Across America Day is just a couple months away so don't delay because from Seussville to Who-ville and Oh, those many places in between, the Cat in the Hat will help put reading on the map! 

Sponsored by the National Education Association, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. and more than 50 national partnering organizations, this year's Read Across America celebrations are expected to attract more than 45 million readers in nearly every home, school, and community. Here's a small sampling of the celebrations to come from coast-to-coast:

* Super Bowl Read-Ins. Kicking off Read Across America season, NFL players will trade in their football helmets for reading hats and huddle with local schoolchildren in Phoenix, host city of Super Bowl XLII, on Wednesday, January 30.

* Cat-a-Van Tours. Revving up their engines, three Cat-a-Vans will hit the road to bring the gift of reading to public schools in need. The tours will kick off their multi-state legs in Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas on February 29, in signature Seuss style. Covering more than 1,200 miles, the Cat-a-Vans will tour throughout Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin from March 3 through March 7. The Cat-a-Vans will provide an estimated 12,000 books and thousands of dollars in cash grants to public schools and their libraries through a generous donation from NEA's Books Across America. 

* Read Across Capitol Hill. From a national proclamation announcing March 3 as National Read Across America Day to members of Congress hosting read-ins in their hometown districts, elected officials will get in on the Seuss excitement.

* Read Across Spring Training. Major league baseball players will show they got game when Cat-a-Vans travel throughout Florida in early March for "Read Across Spring Training,” designed to bring reading fun to ballparks for local children by hosting special read-ins.

More events and information are available online at www.nea.org/readacross. Please mark NEA's Read Across America Day on your calendar because, "You're never too old, too wacky, too wild to pick up a book and read with a child!” 

# # #

The National Education Association is the nation's largest professional employee organization, representing 3.2 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators and students preparing to become teachers.

For more information, contact Staci Maiers, NEA Public Relations, (202) 822-7823, smaiers@nea.org

~Sue Donckels, Managing Editor for Mom Writer’s Literary Magazine

Comments

[Sue Donckels]

Thanks for the heads up on the poetry website! I'll have to check it out. =)

[Veronica]

My girls' school does something for this every year. Being the literary person, I am, I love hearing what Dr. Suess book they read each day. (It usually turns out to be a week long event.)

Also the next month, April, is national poetry month. Check out www.poetryfoundation.org for things you can do with poetry.