Danville Schools Celebrate Dr. Seuss' Birthday and National Read Across America Day

Today is National Read Across America Day.  The National Education Association's reading awareness day.  It's also the birthday of children's author Dr. Seuss, famous for "The Cat In the Hat" and other whimsical stories.

To celebrate, the San Ramon Valley Education Foundation  is hosting its first ever Read-A-Thon.

The program began February 1 and ends today, in Danville schools and other schools in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District. Through the program, kids at 22 participating schools are receiving points for every minute they read. They are also rewarded for recruiting family members and friends to sign-up on their pledge forms.

"We designed the program to make every child passionate about reading," said Cristene Burr, the foundation's executive director. "It doesn't matter what you read, we just want you to read. It's a life-long hobby."

The program has 15,000 of the 25,000 students in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District signed up for the Read-A-Thon.

The foundation hopes to raise $25,000, all of which will be given back to the schools though mini grants to teachers, parents, and staff members. Each of the 22 schools participating gets 20% of the revenue their school produces.

"The Read-A-Thon was an easy sell," said Burr. "This is a really academically oriented district."

Read Booksellers in Blackhawk is also sponsoring the event. The store is giving a $1,000 library prize to each of the top three schools with the most reading minutes. They are also hosting a pizza party, and will give store gift cards to the three classes with the most pledges. 

The classes with the most reading minutes at each school will also get a party sponsored by Yogurtland in San Ramon.

The Danville Area Chamber of Commerce honored the San Ramon Valley Education Foundation as Charitable Organization of 2009 for its outstanding work on behalf of the local schools.

Download the movie