Schools in Fort Worth have started their "Readers Become Leaders" competition. The school district, Fort Worth Sports Commission and NCAA launched the partnership in 2019.
Briscoe Elementary won last year's competition and opened this year's event with a party.
"They're really serious about their books," says Principal Devona Burgess. "They'll run back into the cafeteria, 'Have you seen my book?!' I say, 'I don't know. What is it?' Our librarian, she is awesome with providing them the literature they're looking for."
At the party, Clifford the Big Red Dog greeted students, and athletes from TCU read to kids. Burgess says she hopes to create an environment where kids look forward to reading.
"That's what I love is creating life-long readers," Burgess says. "I bet if I went to a middle school right now, I would know which one was my student because they would have a book out in front of them at the lunch table."
"This partnership we have with the NCAA really is meaningful for these kids to see student-athletes who have been successful," says Fort Worth City Councilwoman Macy HIll.
Hill says Fort Worth ISD can create a foundation for long-term academic success through partnerships with the NCAA and Sports Commission. She says student athletes from TCU can talk to kids about how they built a love for reading and how that ability helps them perform in the classroom and on the field.
"To hear the honesty and transparency from these students who are getting to participate at the college level not only academically but on the field as well really shows reading is the foundation," she says.
Hill says the mayor and other council members work to build Fort Worth ISD's success both to prepare students for the workforce but also keep the city's economy growing.
Since the competition started in 2019, the Fort Worth Sports Commission says students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade have logged more than 164 million minutes of reading.
Students will log time spent reading each day through April 7.
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