Read Across America brings joy with every page turn

Schools across the country, including Humboldt County, celebrated the annual Read Across America.

Lafayette Elementary School Principal, Quincy Brownfield, gave some insight into the event.

“This is a tradition that we’ve done for quite some time here at Lafayette Elementary,” Brownfield said. “We always kick off the month of March with Read Across America and some of the ways that we like to kick it off and celebrate it here is by having community members, guest readers, people from the district office all come and read in each of the classrooms. And the adults, I think, enjoy it probably just as much or more than the children do.”

Lafayette Elementary School in Eureka took part in the literacy celebration by having over ten well-known guests from our community read to the students.

Students also decorated doors with different authors for this year’s reading celebration.

Read Across America promotes literacy and it provides an opportunity for kids to explore the world through books.

London, a fourth grader, explained why she loves to read.

“I love reading. It shows you different cultures and books are like being able to go to a new place,” London said. “You can go to Mars by just picking up a book and start reading the words. You can go literally anywhere and that just amazes me.”

All of Eureka City Schools participated in the annual Read Across America Day.

Marissa Cardenas, a first grade teacher at Lafayette, noted the impact that reading can have on kids.

“I take it as an opportunity to provide windows and mirrors for my students, so books that may reflect what they look and feel like and what others look and feel like,” Cardenas said. “It’s really important because I know as someone of color, I didn’t see myself in a lot of books growing up. And so it’s the representation that’s really important to be able to make a change and be able to see for students, to see themselves as readers and to see themselves as something, like an important role in society.”