By Kathryn Schiliro
Managing Editor

The state’s First Lady, Sandra Deal, wife of Governor Nathan Deal, trekked to Morgan County Elementary School last Thursday, taking some time out on her way to Milledgeville to read both a poem and a story to local PreK and Kindergarten students.
A visit meant to encourage literacy among the youngest students, Deal read a poem, “Learning to Read,” as well as a book, “Who I’d Like to Be,” by Georgia author Elizabeth Brown and illustrated by Brown’s granddaughter.

“My husband and I think this is so very important,” Deal told the students, seated on the floor in the elementary school’s activity room, about reading. “Everything we do when we grow up requires us to know how to read.”

A former middle school teacher herself, the visit was part of her “Read Across Georgia” initiative, which she began “in support of Gov. Nathan Deal’s goal of increasing the percentage of children reading at grade level by the completion of third grade,” according to gov.georgia.gov.

“I encourage students to love to read and to realize how important reading is,” Deal said in an interview with the Citizen. “We believe it’s [reading at grade level before grade 3] important enough for me to spend my time doing this.”

Her Read Across Georgia goal is to read to at least one school in each of the state’s 180 school districts. To date she’s visited 100 counties in Georgia as part of the initiative and read at 170 schools.

AT&T donated a stack of “Who I’d Like to Be” books for local classrooms and school libraries as part of Deal’s visit.

Printed in the February 28, 2013