Students and staff at Jollyville Elementary School joined readers across Texas late last month for H-E-B’s annual Read 3 Big Texas Read In and earned a $1,000 grant to support their campus library.
The statewide event, held in celebration of National Literacy Month, encouraged schools and organizations to “stop, drop, and read” for 30 minutes. More than 140,000 students participated across Texas, with about 10,000 joining the live virtual session.
“H-E-B is hoping to get people to read with their families at least 3 times a week,” Pitner said. “I’m hoping my students know that reading for 20 minutes a day will take you a lot further than 10 minutes or not doing it at all.”
At Jollyville Elementary, classes that chose to participate were allotted 30 minutes of free reading time.
“The more kids read, the better they get,” said Pitner. “Reading is the best thing kids can learn because it’s the foundation of everything they do in school.”
Each participating school was automatically entered into a random drawing for a $1,000 library grant. Jollyville Elementary was selected as one of 10 winners statewide.
Pitner says the money given to them will be used to purchase more books, along with funding future author visits and other initiatives that will benefit the children.