READING, Pa. – For the kids walking into the Olivet Boys and Girls Club on Clinton Street, their new reading nook is a new place to sit, open a book and get lost in a story.
“There’s a lot of fun stuff,” said 9-year-old Haidn Moore, who has been attending the Olivet Boys and Girls Club for three years.
NFL Hall of Famer Andre Reed’s Read with Reed program encourages kids like Haidn to make reading part of their daily lives.
“I want people to, like, read more to get more smarter and have a good life,” said Moore.
The goal is for kids to read 30 minutes a day, And 83 books a year, a nod to the number he wore during his NFL career.
“It is a space to just really create some excitement around literacy. A cool space for kids to just learn and continue moving forward and developing in that area of literacy,” said Reading Olivet CEO Rick Perez.
Perez says having a dedicated space like this can help make reading feel less like an assignment, and more like something kids actually want to do.
“It’s vital because education never stops, and we have to find ways to make education cool,” said Perez.