Read Me Week

Read Me Week is always the highlight of our year.  It is a week-long

event when we highlight theimportanceand fun of reading.   

Area businesses and organizations are recruited to adopt schools during Read Me Week and send volunteers to their schools to read to the students.  With the help of community volunteers who read to students in local elementary and preschools more than one thousand volunteer hours are donated to schools during Read Me Week each year.  
 

Read Me Week always ends with Read Me Day which is when Book’em spotlights one of Metro Nashville’s public schools with a special program for the students followed by area celebrities reading to all of the school’s classrooms.  Celebrities include Mayor Karl Dean, Nashville media and sports personalities, and local politicians.  

Sponsors for Read Me Week 2010 included Nashville Public Television, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, Comcast, Rogers Group Inc., Davis-Kidd Booksellers, McNeely Pigott & Fox, Nissan WBST, Nashville Predators, Hightech Signs, Vision 3 Interactive, and Mettler Toledo Fisher Scientific.

Read Me Week 2010  

2010 Read Me Week Theme - Growing Readers

Read Me Week 2010 was February 22-26 with Read Me Day on Friday, February 26 at Caldwell Enhanced Option Elementary School. 

Thirty-one elementary schools and  24 different businesses and organizations celebrated together with many varied activities including reading and art contests, hat day, character day, float parade, and more than 400 volunteers visiting the schools to read to students.

The next Read Me Week will be during October 2010.  Look for details.    

The History of Read Me Week 

Read Me Day was started in 1986 by Frankie DeWees, a teacher at East Hickman Elementary School in Lyles, Tenn. The purpose of the event was to celebrate the importance of reading. The event was called “Read Me Week” because students, teachers and visiting readers were invited to wear a shirt, cap, or pin with a message on it so the children could “read the reader.” 

Schools (documents to download):

To sign up to participate in Read Me Week

Suggested Activities for Read Me Week

Businesses & Organizations (documents to download):

To sign up to adopt a School during Read Me Week

Tips for Volunteer Readers

Angie Beier, Fisher Scientific, had the right idea - her t-shirt had a quote from a Dr. Seuss book. Angie read to a class at Caldwell Elementary.  Fisher Scientific and Mettler Toledo donated the new books given to each student at Caldwell.

Mayor Karl Dean

Farmer Jason (center), Beth and Tom Parrish with the Scarlett Family Foundation