SAN ANGELO ISD, FAMILIES AND STUDENTS CELEBRATE LITERACY WITH FUN, SUMMER BOOK PATROL POP-UP EVENT

Hundreds of children and their family members joined San Angelo ISD and more than 40 local businesses and organizations for the District’s San Angelo READS! Summer Book Patrol Pop-Up Event May 31. This year’s Pop-Up event took place in the San Angelo Stadium parking lot and was the District’s largest READS! Pop-Up event to date.

The READS! Pop-Up event was held to inspire a love of reading as part of the San Angelo READS! community-wide literacy initiative. “This was the best event yet due to our amazing community partners and San Angelo ISD staff,” said Dr. Farrah Gomez, SAISD Deputy Superintendent and Chief Academic Officer. “To see the many smiles on student faces was the best reminder of why a love for reading is so impactful! A love for literacy lasts a lifetime.”

The event was filled with various activities and fun for families including:

• delicious, free shaved ice snow cones generously provided by Kona Ice of San Angelo; 
• police patrol vehicle exploration by San Angelo Police Department;
• Chick-fil-A’s famous cow representing Sherwood Way and Chick-fil-A Knickerbocker and passing out CFA items;
• Lake View High School Ambassadors reading books and helping children make rainbow fish, Scribble Stones, and providing snacks;
• Meals for the Elderly providing children with cards to draw on/color, which will be included in lunch sacks for meals recipients;
• rock painting/coloring and bracelet making with Girl Scouts of Central Texas; 
• Texas Parks & Wildlife Department - Game Wardens with their Operation Game Thief trailer and read alouds; 
• 1st Community Federal Credit Union with information and bubble wands;
• create your own book/book mark with the Blackshear Heights Family;
• radiation detecting bookmarks, information, and library-card applications from the Tom Green County Library System;
• prize wheel, giveaways, and child ID kits from New York Life Trey Holmes;
• reading books to animals, make your own bookmark, free books from the Adult Literacy Council of the Concho Valley; 
• “Growing Blooming Readers & Writers” with Education Service Center Region XV - creating flowers with pencils and pipe cleaners and planting seeds in paper cups;  
• stickers with positive quotes from Education Service Center Region XV - McKinney-Vento Program;
• face painting with San Angelo to Go; 
• appearance from San Angelo Spiderman with No Xcuses MMA Fitness;
• color-your-own bookmarks with West Texas Guidance and Counseling; 
• book and promotional giveaways from Toys for Tots of San Angelo & the Concho Valley;  
• summer fun booklet, candy and bookmark giveaways from San Angelo Schools Foundation; 
• Book, bookmark crafts, and story time with Concho Valley Retired Teachers & Associates; 
• book giveaway and fire truck exploration with San Angelo Fire Department; 
• princess visits from Enchanted Parties;  
• visit from the Santa Rita Elementary Cheerleaders;
• Concho Educators Federal Credit Union with information, coloring books and crayons;
• water balloon volleyball with Bays Learning Advantage;
• SAISD Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) activities led by SAISD representatives;
• crafts and book giveaways with the United Way of the Concho Valley;
• 94.7 KIXY FM with Rick Andrews live on-site;
• various lawn games with SAISD Curriculum & Instruction team; 
• basketball with SAISD Athletics;
• farm animal petting zoo, dog-themed booth, read alouds, karaoke, face painting & temporary tattoos, bowling for books, and a book walk with SAISD Instructional Coaches;
• Pop It Word Races with SAISD Guidance & Counseling, Bilingual Education, and Assessment departments;  
• dunk booth with SAISD Communications team;
• help with back-to-school enrollment for the upcoming school year including ability to use SAISD computers and have Spanish-language assistance and document scanning assistance with SAISD Superintendent’s Office, Data Services and Communications departments. 

“Our community is truly an outstanding one,” said SAISD Director of Community Relations Sun Cha. “The event wouldn’t have been possible, and nowhere near as fun for the public, without the help of all of the amazing local businesses, organizations and the SAISD departments that took the time to put on such an array of fun activities for everyone to enjoy. We sincerely appreciate each and every one of them for their time, generosity and participation.”

SAISD extends a very special thank you to each of these wonderful businesses, organizations and departments for their support of our San Angelo community, students and San Angelo READS! 

Our Summer Book Patrol fun doesn’t stop here! You can join us in inspiring a love of reading by nominating a child in our community to receive free books through our nomination form through Friday, June 23, 2023.

Please visit the SAISD website at www.saisd.org/read and follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up-to-date on San Angelo READS! and the Summer Book Patrol! Community members are encouraged to share how they celebrate reading all summer long through the hashtag, #SAISDReads. 

San Angelo READS!

The San Angelo Reads! community-wide literacy initiative was founded by the District in 2020 to promote and encourage reading and the SAISD future-ready learner profile attributes among SAISD students and the greater San Angelo community. The goal of the literacy initiative is to increase awareness of the importance of literacy and to inspire a love for reading. This exciting initiative is driven by statistics which show how vitally important literacy is to providing all students with the opportunities to succeed at a young age. Children and teenagers who read for pleasure on a daily or weekly basis score better on reading and writing tests than infrequent or non-readers.

SAISD kicked off San Angelo READS! on December 9, 2020 with the inaugural San Angelo Reads! Day, a day when literacy was celebrated at every SAISD elementary campus with literacy fun like read-ins, unveiling book vending machines and a gift of a book to all SAISD 3rd graders compliments of the San Angelo Area Foundation. SAISD is focused on building literacy skills that create students who are prepared for future successes, inside and outside the classroom and beyond their time in our hallways.