Read For The Record Has Tulsa Kids Spellbound

Rick Wells, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- Getting kids involved in reading is what the nationwide project called Read for the Record is all about.

Millions of kids and adults at thousands of sites were reading "Llama Llama Red Pajama" Thursday.

In Tulsa, Community Action Project was involved at all its sites, including Robert Frost Early Childhood Education Center.

"The idea is to put the child with a trusted adult in the community to really kind of highlight and take a stand against the early childhood education achievement gap," said Linda Brock.

To get them interested in reading the kids were encouraged to wear their pajamas to school Thursday.

The long range object of this program and others like it is to make these kids better prepared to succeed in school.

Jeanne Gillert with the Hardesty Family Foundation is one of today's guest readers, and she's sold on the program.

"The more they can associate what they're doing with reading, the more they'll love to read," Gillert said.

And be less likely to become a negative statistic.

"Less likely to drop out, less likely to repeat grades," Brock said.

Robert Frost school was named for the poet whose poem The Road Not Taken ends with the line: I took the road less travelled by.... and that has made all the difference.

Read for the Record hopes to get these kids on a path that'll make a positive difference for them.