Read Across America Tour Rolls Into Oklahoma
By Brenda Álvarez
After covering almost 800 miles of ground, NEA’s Read Across America Cat-a-Van Tour 1 capped off a week’s worth of reading celebrations on Friday in Oklahoma with two school visits.Steed Elementary School in Midwest City was the first stop of the Oklahoma tour.
Firefighters from Midwest City Fire Department Ladder 2 passed out the red and white stovepipe hats to nearly 400 students, who received a special reading from David Tjaden, NEA’s student chair. Tjaden, who represents 60,000 student members at colleges and universities studying to become educators, read from The Cat in the Hat.
Special guest readers included Linda Hampton, president of the Oklahoma Education Association, and Roland Branham, officer for the Midwest City Police Department. The pair read from Green Eggs and Ham.
Branham was excited to join in Read Across America, “Usually, when we get ‘called’ it’s because someone is having a bad day, but being a part of events like this is great because we’re able to share with the community in good times.”
In the afternoon, the tour made the 40-mile trek to Horace Mann Elementary School in the city of Shawnee. Former First Lady Kim Henry served as a special guest reader.
“It’s very important to bring reading events like Read Across America into schools. There’s no more
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