By Kathryn Schiliro
Managing Editor

A total of 1,043 Morgan County children took part in the national "Read for the Record" initiative on Wednesday, Oct. 3.
"Read for the Record" is "one day of the year when millions of individuals come together to celebrate literacy and support Jumpstart (an organization advocating early childhood education and literacy) in its efforts to promote early childhood education," according to the Jumpstart website, jstart.org.
On the designated day, Jumpstart encourages people to read the same book to as many children as possible. Last year, 2.2 million people took part in this initiative.
This year's selection–"Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad," by David Soman and Jacky Davis–was read aloud to 255 children at storytime at the county library, according to school system administrator Wayne Myers, who is responsible for participation in the event at the county level.
The rest of the more than 1,000 Morgan County children came at the primary school level, where a "very animated" Erin Garrett read the book over school-wide television, Myers said.

Printed in the October 11, 2012