Kids Read to Lead Celebrates Read Across America

On Friday, March 2, The Peace Fund's Kids Read to Lead initiative joined Read Across America Day, celebrated on the birthday of the beloved children's author, Dr. Seuss. This event was held at Young Horizons in Long Beach, reaching over 100 children from 6 months to 5 years old.  Many parents, community leaders, staff, board members and Abagail Mejia, representative of the Long Beach Mayor's office, were on hand to read to the children. The children and staff spent the time leading up to the event with a week long Read Across America celebration. 

With all these wonderful activities going on, children got to experience Dr Seuss books in depth through voice actress Erin Fitzgerald! The children were prepared for her visit and they overwhelmed her with love, through their gratitude, hugs, and amazing hand-made cards as a way to say thank you for coming to their center. The books were donated by Ruth Stalford of The Book Foundation, giving children the opportunity to share these books at home later with parents and siblings. The children were excited to have so many community members visit their school and classrooms.  One little girls said, “Please don’t go. Let’s play some more!”

For these young children, t was a fantastic end to Read Across America Week.