Club book reading to include mayor

The North Little Rock Rotary Club will have its annual “I Like Me” book reading to kindergarten students this week via Zoom, and the event will include an appearance from Mayor Terry Hartwick.

Rotary Club members read to one elementary school at a time using a video-streaming service last week. The campaign will continue this week. Hartwick and club member Debbie Robinson will read to Seventh Street Elementary students at 9 a.m. Thursday, Rotary Club member John Hall said.

Every year the North Little Rock Rotary Club sponsors the I Like Me reading program, which promotes early-age literacy and self-esteem using personalized books. The books are published through Kindergartners Count Inc., a nonprofit in Topeka, Kan.

Each book contains the child’s name, and the names of the child’s two best friends, teacher, principal and school. The story contains a message about doing the right things, staying in school, learning to read, staying away from harmful substances and developing self-esteem, Hall said.

The Education Accelerated by Service and Technology (EAST) class at the North Little Rock High School-West campus and Rotary Club volunteers collected the information to individualize the books, he said.

The campaign started in 1999. Usually, the club organizes around 100 volunteers to read the books to students all in one day, but the event is virtual this year because of the pandemic, Hall said.