Ohio Dominican Participates in "Read Across America" Day

ODU's President to Read to Students at Chapelfield Elementary

February 28, 2005

COLUMBUS, OH - In recognition of "Read Across America Day," Ohio Dominican University President Jack Calareso, will read a Dr. Seuss story to kindergarten students at Chapelfield Elementary School on Wednesday morning, March 2.

Dr. Calareso will be joined by the following business and community leaders:
Dr. Carl Kohrt - President and CEO of Battelle
Dr. Kathy Sullivan - President and CEO of COSI
Mr. Gregg Morris - Gahanna-Jefferson School Superintendent
Ms. Becky Stinchcomb - Mayor of Gahanna
Mr. Jim McGregor - State Representative, Ohio Legislature
Ms. Carla Williams-Scott - Community Affairs Coordinator, Mayor Coleman's Office
Mr. Fred Kauser - Assistant Fire Chief of Gahanna

Several Gahanna School Board members will be in attendance, including President Windy McKenna. Gahanna Police Officers and other community business leaders will also join in the celebration.

Chapelfield Elementary is located at 280 Chapelfield Road in Gahanna. The event will begin at 8:00 AM and will continue throughout the school day.

National "Read Across America Day" is an annual event focused on teaching young people the importance of reading. The National Education Association sponsors this event nationwide and has declared that on March 2nd, every child in America will have the opportunity to read a story in the company of a caring adult. The day the event is celebrated, March 2nd, is the birthday of Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel), whose incredible imagination and delightful stories have helped children everywhere learn to love books. Community leaders all across the country visit schools on this day and share Dr. Seuss books with students. University students and staff across the nation have been taking time to read to younger students for the past several years. Reading research studies have consistently shown that children who are read to and spend more time reading perform better academically in school.

Mrs. Rose Calareso is the coordinator of this first celebration of "Read Across America Day" at Chapelfield. "As an elementary school Library Media Specialist, I can attest to the excitement generated by an event like "Read Across America Day." The students always enjoy and reap benefits from having stories read aloud to them, especially the whimsical Dr. Seuss tales. Having community leaders visiting their classrooms and reading to them affirms the importance of literacy and emphasizes the concept of leaders as readers. We are grateful that so many community leaders are taking the time from their busy schedules to connect with our elementary students and to highlight the importance of literacy in their own lives."

DR. SEUSS

Dr. Seuss, born Theodor Seuss Geisel, was born March 2, 1904 in Springfield Massachusetts.

His first children's book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, is a delightful peek into the vivid imagination of a child, but publishers in 1937 were not receptive; in fact, Seuss presented his manuscript to 27 publishing houses and received 27 rejections.

Houghton Mifflin and Random House asked Seuss to write a children's primer using 220 new-reader vocabulary words; the end result was The Cat in the Hat.

Many honors and awards were bestowed upon Seuss, including an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from his alma mater, Dartmouth. In addition to six other honorary doctorates, some of his more notable awards include an Oscar for Gerald McBoing-Boing (Best Cartoon, 1951); two Emmys for Halloween Is Grinch Night and The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (Best Children's Special, 1977 and1982, respectively); a Pulitzer Prize (1984); a Peabody for the animated specials How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and Horton Hears a Who! (1971); and a New York Library Literary Lion (1986). Three of his books received Caldecott Honor Awards: McElligot's Pool (1947), Bartholomew and the Oobleck (1949), and If I Ran the Zoo (1950). In 1980, the American Library Association (the same organization responsible for the prestigious Newbery and Caldecott Awards) honored Seuss with a Laura Ingalls Wilder Award. This special award is given to an author or illustrator whose books-having been published in the United States and have made a substantial contribution and lasting impact to children's literature. In 2006, the American Library Association will present the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for the first time. This award will be given annually "to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished contribution to the body of American children's literature known as beginning reader books published in the United States during the preceding year" (www.ala.org).

At the time of Seuss' death on September 24, 1991, some 200 million copies of his books, translated into 15 different languages, had found their way into homes and hearts around the world. Since then, sales continue to climb, estimated at more than 22 million since 1991. Excerpts from http://www.seussville.com/.