READING, Pa. – Andre Reed has spent years being recognized for what he accomplished on the football field.

Tuesday, though, he wasn’t at the Olivet Boys & Girls Club on Clinton Street to talk about football. Instead, he was giving kids a place to read, learn, and dream big.

“Reading is fundamental, reading is knowledge, reading is power,” Reed said.

The Andre Reed Foundation unveiled a brand-new reading space at Olivet.

The “Read with Reed Program” encourages kids like 9-year-old Hadin Moore to make reading part of their daily lives.

“I want people to, like, read more to get more smarter and have a good life,” Moore said.

Reed, an Allentown native, played at Kutztown University before an NFL career that eventually landed him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Before all of that, Reed was much like the children at Olivet.

“I was a [Boys & Girls Club] kid for 12 years, from age probably 6 or 7 to like 16 almost,” Reed said. 

Now he’s using his platform to give back to kids in the community and the clubs he says helped him become the man he is today.

“Andre was a little kid, too, and Andre needed help, and I found help,” Reed said. “And I found a person that believed in me, which helped me believe in myself a little bit more.”

Reed says the goal is to help make reading feel less like an assignment, and more like something kids actually want to do.

“If you can’t read, it’s a little harder for you out there,” he said. “And the more you read, the more you’re able to lead our readers. You want your readers to become leaders.”

Still, it’s not just about the words on the page.

Reed says it’s also the confidence that comes with being able to read them.

“And that’s what you want these kids to have. Confidence and realize they can be anything, do anything, be anything they want to be,” Reed said.   

For the kids walking into the Olivet Boys & Girls Club on Clinton Street, their new reading nook is a new place to sit, open a book and get lost in a story.

The goal is for kids to read 30 minutes a day and 83 books a year — a nod to the number Reed 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,” Perez said.