Saint Francis Xavier students 'Read Across America'

Intermountain Catholic

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KEARNS — Students at Saint Francis Xavier Regional School welcomed characters real and fictional to the school Feb. 27 as they observed annual Read Across America Day.

Founded by the National Education Association, Read Across America is now in its 12th year. The program focuses on motivating students to read, in addition to helping them master basic skills.

The nationwide reading celebration takes place each year on or near March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss. (Theodor Geisel) Across the country, thousands of schools, libraries, community centers, and more participate by bringing together students and books.

"We decided to hold our Read Across America Day Feb. 27, because it fell on a Friday, and the students are only in school half a day," said Kathleen Kilby, who has organized the event at the school every year.

Read Across America 2009 brought out a readers’ theater presentation by seventh-graders for first-graders. The presentation involved a variety of Dr. Seuss characters.

Nancy Essary, principal of St. Francis Xavier said the school has celebrated Read Across America for at least nine years.

"We try to invite all kinds of people from the community to come and read with our students," said Essary. "This year we had news and sports personalities, librarians, firefighters, a therapy dog and its master, and one of our staff members brought her dog."

If students found themselves without readers, they participated in free reading time, said Essary, "that way the whole day was dedicated to reading, and the students participating in free reading time had a reading marathon."

Although readers had a host of books from which to choose, Dr.Seuss was the most popular. Essary said, "Books like ‘The Places You’ll Go’ are wonderful, and after all, you’re never too old for Dr. Seuss."