Celebration of reading and thousands of books for PA kids - courtesy of Student PSEA

Read about additional Read Across America programs in Pennsylvania on PSEA.org.

Learn more about Read Across America at www.psea.org/ReadAcross.

A crowd of enthusiastic future teachers from Southern Region Student PSEA returned to the York Galleria Mall for this year's Celebration of Reading. The annual event is part of NEA’s Read Across America initiative, celebrating the birthday of Dr. Seuss and the importance of literacy.

The Southern Region Student PSEA chapter sponsors the event, working hard to make each year a success with activities that combine learning and entertainment to promote literacy and instill the idea that reading can be entertaining.

According to Morgan Smith, a senior at Millersville University of Pennsylvania and this year’s Southern Region Student PSEA president, the event is designed to put adults and kids together with books and to foster a lifelong love of reading. “The day consisted of craft and activity tables, hourly raffles, live entertainment, published children’s author Richard Ammon, celebrity readers including local news anchor Valerie Pritchett from WHTM-TV, a young authors contest, and an art contest.  All of the activities were created with kindergarten through sixth grade children in mind.

“With the current economic uncertainty and all the changes in education, being a lifelong reader is very important. Some students might not have adult role models to teach them that reading is important. By providing this event, we make it possible for families to attend a free event and show their children how beneficial and how much fun reading can be.”

A book drive was held in conjunction with the event.  Southern Region PSEA-Retired and many region locals joined Student PSEA in collecting books towards a 4,000 book goal – over 1,000 books were collected on Saturday alone.  Over the past five years, the students have collected and distributed almost 10,000 books with most going to local charities.

Also at the event, members from PSEA-Retired collected messages from children to include in care packages for Southern Region soldiers, or families of soldiers, currently deployed.

Student PSEA is a pre-professional student association dedicated to advancing leadership skills and professional development among future educators across the Commonwealth.  Participating chapters included Elizabethtown College, Lebanon Valley College, Messiah College, Millersville University, and Shippensburg University. 

Photos of the event are located on PSEA's Facebook page.

Learn more about Student PSEA at www.psea.org/students.