October 18, 2018 (BOSTON) —Jumpstart is pleased to announce actor, Esai Morales (Ozark, La Bamba), as an official Literacy Champion for Jumpstart’s 13th annual Read for the Record campaign. Morales’ acting career spans four decades, and he is the co-founder of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts.
This year, Morales joins legendary activist and organizer, Dolores Huerta, as a 2018 Literacy Champion, as well as past celebrity ambassadors Josh Duhamel, Bridget Moynahan, Nigel Barker, LL Cool J, Maya Angelou, Mandy Moore, Julianna Margulies and others in supporting this 24-hour celebration which, since 2006, has mobilized more than 19 million people globally to raise awareness about the need for high-quality early learning for all children and the transformative power of books and reading to impact student learning and engagement. Morales will read aloud to 300 young children at the Heritage Museum of Orange County in Irvine, California on Thursday, October 25.
“Esai’s commitment to organizations that support children is long standing and we are honored to have him as a Read for the Record Literacy Champion,” explains Naila Bolus, President and CEO of Jumpstart. “We are very excited to have a bilingual Literacy Champion to highlight the importance of adults reading aloud with children in English or Spanish.”
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers, this year’s book selection, Maybe Something Beautiful, and in Spanish, Quizás algo hermoso, by F. Isabel Campoy and Theresa Howell, and illustrated by Rafael López, celebrates the magic that can happen when a community comes together to create something beautiful and bring about change.
The Read for the Record campaign culminates on October 25, 2018, when people across the country (and globe) will come together to celebrate Read for the Record Day by reading Maybe Something Beautiful to young children in their communities, all as part of an attempt to beat the world record for most people reading the same book on the same day.
To learn more about Jumpstart’s Read for the Record, visit readfortherecord.org.
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ABOUT JUMPSTART
Jumpstart is a national early education organization working toward the day every child in America enters kindergarten prepared to succeed. By participating in Jumpstart’s yearlong program, children develop the language, literacy, and social and emotional skills they need to be ready for school, setting them on a path for lifelong success. Since 1993, Jumpstart has trained 47,500 college students and community volunteers to transform the lives of over 110,000 preschool children nationwide. Jumpstart is a proud member of the AmeriCorps service network. Learn more at jstart.org and follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @Jumpstartkids.
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