Mayor Lois Jackson, Vancouver Giants players, police officers and others were at Hawthorne Elementary Monday to help students and staff celebrate Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) Day.
Coinciding with National School Library Day, DEAR Day is a special reading celebration to encourage kids and families to make reading on a daily basis a priority.
"Last year, we decided to kick it up a notch and celebrate reading all day long, not only to celebrate the importance of school libraries but to celebrate the importance of reading," said Jane Ratzlaff, a teacher-librarian and vice-principal at Hawthorne. "Last year, we invited members of our community to be role models in our school and share their love of reading."
The mayor was joined at the Ladner school by the police chief and two constables, firefighters, past administrators and retired teachers, as well as members of the Giants, to read to students.
Noting the entire school participated, Ratzlaff said students were excited, having finished a two-day Scholastic Book Fair last week, where they bought $5,000 worth of books to help raise funds for the library.
The B.C. Teacher-Librarian Association says Oct. 22 was the 10th anniversary of National School Library Day and the sixth annual DEAR Day across B.C. The association says last year nearly 55,000 students, teachers and volunteers participated in DEAR Day.
The association encourages everyone to "sacrifice" just 20 minutes of time by dropping everything in order to read.
