NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Sunday is a special event at Gowans Stadium for Kindergarten through 3rd grade kids called United We Read.
"We know that by third grade, if a child is not reading at grade level, they are more likely not to graduate high school," said Denice Gilliland with the United Way. "The United Way has done the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which gets books into children's hands 0-5 for the last seven years. This is just a continuation to get books in the hands of kids right before summer."
The Hutchinson Public Library will have free library cards available and information on their summer reading program as well as a StoryWalk at the stadium.
"It was created by the Boston Children's Museum," said Darcie Canfield-Riggs with the Hutchinson Public Library. "It's where you take a book and you essentially tear it apart and you put it on a sign or some kind of a stable thing, that people can take a walk and read a story page by page as they are going along. Our children's outreach coordinator, Amy Johnson, she's worked really hard to offer StoryWalks around our community for the last few years. We just are wrapping up one at Dillon Nature Center. We're excited to offer a book that families can walk around the track at Gowans this Sunday and read, Inky's Great Escape, about an octopus."
There will be free books for children kindergarten to 3rd Grade, thanks to funds from the United Way.
"Picture books, chapter books, graphic novels, non-fiction books, we're handing them out at this event," Canfield-Riggs said. "I think we've got about 1,400 books or so that we're going to be giving out this Sunday."
The event is from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. If the weather is bad, it will move indoors to the Salthawk Activity Center.
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