'Blades & Culver's Announce Reading Program

ESTERO, FL – The Florida Everblades and Culver’s are pleased to announce a new reading program called Sticks up For Reading presented by Culver’s, a free program for students grades K-5.

The goal of the program is to not only keep kids engaged in reading, but to also challenge them to improve on their reading abilities and help them achieve their own person reading goals. Students are encouraged to read either independently or to another person, and not restricted to just reading books.  They can read newspapers and magazines as well.

While this program will be introduced largely to public school, private and home schools are also encouraged to participate.

“There’s nothing more important than the children of Southwest Flordia and their education,“ said Co-Owner of Culver’s of Gulf Coast Town Center Mike DuQuette. “We are very excited to partner with the Florida Everblades in a very exciting and beneficial program.’

The program is simple.  After a student is finished reading, he/she will mark down what they have read on a score card provided by the Everblades.  The scorecard will then be initialed by an adult.  Teachers will be presented with all materials needed for the program such as a classroom tracking poster, individual daily scorecards for students, participation posters, prizes for student incentives, bookmarks and a certificate of participation for each student.

Sticks up for Reading presented by Culver’s  hopes that by providing program incentives for both students and teachers will encourage schools across Southwest Florida to take advantage of this great opportunity.  Any school that has five or more classrooms participating in Sticks up for Reading will receive a program kickoff from Everblades mascot Swampee and his friends. The first ten teachers to enroll into the program will receive a special visit from Swampee and an Everblades player!

All Students will receive a certificate of accomplishment while readers who reach or exceed the goal 700 minutes will be entered in a drawing to win a ticket to the Sticks up for Reading Night with the Everblades on April 4, 2015.  There will be only 90 winners chosen. The top five teachers with the highest reading results will win two tickets to the Sticks up for Reading night.

The program last for any for-week span from October 1, 2014 through March 1, 2015.  At the conclusion of each four-week segment, the teacher overseeing the program will record each of his/her students minutes and submit the final minutes via e-mail to katiel@floridaeverblades.com  From there the score will be talked and compared with other students and teachers to decide our winner.  The last day to register for our program is January 15, 2015.

Florida Everblades players and staff have been actively involved with schools in Southwest Florida since 1998, taking part in activities such as reading to classrooms, after school programs, and fundraising.

For more information about the Sticks up for Reading Program CLICK HERE

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