2,600 books are being gifted to CPS elementary students as part of Read Across Columbia

Roger McKinney, Columbia Daily Tribune
·2 min read
TJ, the mascot for the University of Missouri Children's Hospital, on Tuesday hands out full bookbags to students at Blue Ridge Elementary School.
TJ, the mascot for the University of Missouri Children's Hospital, on Tuesday hands out full bookbags to students at Blue Ridge Elementary School.

First- and second-graders at Blue Ridge Elementary School and four other Columbia Public Schools elementary schools on Tuesday received four free books in a bookbag as part of Read Across Columbia.

Read Across Columbia is a partnership among Heart of Missouri United Way, Columbia Public Schools, University of Missouri Health Care and Daniel Boone Regional Library.

There are 2,600 books going to Blue Ridge, Alpha Hart Lewis, West, Parkade and Benton elementary schools. They're being delivered by Joe Machens Ford Lincoln.

"We're here today because of you," said DeMarko Coleman, co-chair of Heart of Missouri United Way with wife Adonica Coleman. "We only have one goal — that is to encourage young people like yourselves to develop a love of reading."

Their daughter, Jordyn Coleman, a fifth-grader at Rock Bridge Elementary School, talked about her own love of reading.

Many books can help you better yourself, she said.

"Reading improves how your brain works," she said.

Columbia Public Schools Superintendent Brian Yearwood on Tuesday talks with first- and second-graders at Blue Ridge Elementary School about the importance of reading as part of Read Across Columbia.
Columbia Public Schools Superintendent Brian Yearwood on Tuesday talks with first- and second-graders at Blue Ridge Elementary School about the importance of reading as part of Read Across Columbia.

Andrew Grabau, Heart of Missouri United Way president and CEO, asked the children about the special guest in the room.

"It's a person in a costume," one child offered.

Another said it was TJ, who is the mascot for University of Missouri Children's Hospital.

Nim Chinniah, interim CEO of MU Health Care, introduced himself by telling the children he runs a big hospital.

"I grew up in another country called Sri Lanka," Chinniah said. "Look it up when you get home."

He said he and his sister used to negotiate with their parents about how many library books they could borrow each week.

"It makes your mind strong," Chinniah said of reading. "It makes you strong. And when you are strong, it makes our community very strong."

If the children read, they will someday have his job, said CPS Superintendent Brian Yearwood.

"Without reading, our future looks dim," Yearwood said.

Reading will give our community a better future, he said.

Katrina Lambrecht, COO of MU Health Care, read the children one of their new books "Germs Make Me Sick." The other books are "Outside Inside," "My First Day" and "Thunder Boy Jr."

Roger McKinney is the education reporter for the Tribune. You can reach him at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com or 573-815-1719. He's on Twitter at @rmckinney9.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Books gifted to elementary students as part of Read Across Columbia