Hazell Reads for Local Youth as Part of Read.Share.Give. Campaign
6/30/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
BEACHWOOD—Kent State head coach Darrell Hazell spent a few moments Thursday morning carefully studying the contents of a book before he was to share it with an eager audience.
Hazell wasn't crafting the game plan his Golden Flashes would use when they open the 2011 season at Alabama on Sept. 3. Instead, he familiarized himself with the story of "One Stuck Duck," the children's book he read to a group of three and four year olds at the KinderCare Learning Center in Beachwood.
The Beachwood center was one of seven out of 2,200 KinderCare locations nationwide to kickoff the Read.Share.Give. campaign, a reading initiative with the goal of inspiring "one million storytimes."
And that's why Hazell spent his morning in a classroom instead of in front of a video player studying Alabama game film.
"I think it's very important to emphasize the importance of reading and literacy across our country," Hazell said. "Reading increases your vocabulary and helps with comprehension. It can take you places you might not otherwise be able to go."
Because it's Hazell's first year as head coach at Kent State and 2011 is the first year for the KinderCare initiative, Beachwood Center Director Paulette Hare thought Hazell was a natural fit as a celebrity guest reader.
"We were excited to have coach Hazell here to participate in our Read.Share.Give. campaign," Hare said. "It's our first year participating in the nationwide literacy and development campaign and we felt what better visitor to have than coach Hazell, who is also new to the Northeast Ohio community. He's also in the education field, working at Kent State. We felt that it would be positive to have him join in the fun and read and help get the kids excited about the event."
Hare was impressed with Hazell's enthusiasm and ability to capture the attention of the children as he read phrases such as, "Down by the marsh, by the sleepy, slimy marsh, one duck gets stuck in the muck."
"The kids really enjoyed listening to coach Hazell read," she said. "I have to say that he did a very good job reading. Some readers aren't ready to go when they read to a bunch of preschoolers, but he definitely read well and got them excited and got them involved. He was very patient with them and they were very excited to have him."
Hazell isn't ready to trade in his clipboard to join the KinderCare staff, but he enjoyed his time with the children.
"The thing about kids, they are so innocent and shapeable and moldable. They're an open sheet of paper," he said. "The sky is the limit for them. I love being around the naturalness of young kids."
Each child at the Beachwood KinderCare received a copy of One Duck Stuck to read and then share to help the initiative reach its goal of one million story's read this summer.
The books in the program are tagged with an identification number that after reading can be registered on the Read.Share.Give web site. Each time the book is registered, KinderCare will donate another book to a non-profit early reading program. The more books that are registered, the more KinderCare will donate.
Any book can be registered in the program. Simply visit the Read.Share.Give. web site and print a tracking number to affix to the inside cover of the book.
KinderCare also donated 500 copies of the children's book, "The Library Lion," to the Cleveland Public Library.
Visit http://www.kindercare.com/read for more information on the Read.Share.Give. campaign.
