Students Learn the Importance of Reading

GRAND TERRACE>> Read Across America was celebrated by Grand Terrace View Elementary School on Thursday, March 2 and promoted motivation and raising awareness of reading. Read Across America also coincides with Dr. Seuss' birthday, promoting the event to be titled “Grab your Hat and Read with the Cat.” Students at Grand Terrace View Elementary School were visited by not only parents and grandparents but also Grand Terrace Mayor Darcy McNaboe, Fire Chief Jeff English and crew, Brennan Mejia, the actor who plays the Red Power Ranger in the TV show "Dino Charge", Grand Terrace High School Titans and Terrace View alumni Emilie Gleisberg. Guests focused on the importance of learning to read and shared their experiences with the young students at the elementary school. Julia Firnkoess, Grand Terrace resident, stated that the city is lucky to have the mayor, first responders and high school students come to do peer-to-peer modeling for the students. “It was a real treat to have Brennan Mejia here. The students were really excited when he came into the classrooms,” said Firnkoess. “He talked about reading and shared his special talent of reading words forwards and backwards with the same fluency.” Mejia read to students from kindergarten to sixth grade. He is an established performer with many roles, including features in the final episode of "American Horror Story" season one, "CSI Miami", "iCarly" and numerous commercials. “When our local schools participate in programs such as Read Across America, they demonstrate the desire that our local educators, school administrator, parents and community members have for fomenting a love of reading in our students,” McNaboe said. McNaboe quotes Dr. Seuss when describing the importance of literacy: “the more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn the more places you’ll go.”