Glen Cove, New York – Assemblymember Charles Lavine (D-North Shore) reads to kids as part of a national program meant to encourage reading at home. Lavine read the book Stella Luna to Miss Pilewski’s third grade class at Glen Cove’s Connolly Elementary School on Thursday (2/16/23). Lavine was one of several Glen Cove officials and people in prominent positions throughout the community taking part in the PARP (Pick a Reading Partner) Community Readers Day. “I enjoyed reading to the kids very much, the kids listened attentively and asked smart questions about state government and the role I play in it,” Lavine said. “As a local leader, parent, and now grandparent of kids in the Glen Cove Schools District, I am so proud of the quality of education provided by the hardworking and dedicated professionals in this wonderful system,” he added. The event is part of a two-week program themed Read S'more at Camp Read-A-Lot involving classes competing with each other to see which can tally up the most minutes reading with their parents at home. Students have been so successful, Principal Bryce Klatsky has agreed to take on their challenge of a ‘drum off’ with the principal at a near-by elementary school. The program is organized by Dora Ricciardi, the school’s English Language Arts Academic Intervention Teacher, whose main role is to assist individual children who may need extra assistance in reading. “It’s extremely important for the kids to be read to aloud to every day as there are so many benefits to that for them,” Ricciardi said. “I try to bring in people from the community to come read to the children and share a little about what their career is and how reading has impacted their lives so the kids have role models to look up to and inspire them to keep reading,” she added.

**All photos courtesy of the Office of Charles D. Lavine**