With our baseball season in full swing, the Rays have teamed up with the St. Petersburg Times' Newspaper in Education program and the Helios Education Foundation to create a lineup of free summer reading fun. Our goals are to encourage you to read more this summer and to visit the library regularly before you return to school this fall. If we succeed in our efforts, then you too will succeed as part of our Reading Your Way to the Ballpark program.
By reading books this summer, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco and Pinellas County elementary school students in grades three through five can circle the bases - first, second, third and home and collect prizes as they go. Make it all the way around to home and the ultimate reward is a ticket to see the red-hot Rays in action at Tropicana field this season.
Our players are excited about this program as well. Dan Wheeler and teammates Grant Balfour, Carl Crawford, Scott Kazmir, Evan Longoria and Dioner Navarro join me in encouraging you to read your way to the ballpark this summer.
Kids, you can get your game cards and prizes at public libraries in Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco and Pinellas counties. Summer is baseball season and it can also be a great time to be in the library reading books and stories that interest you. Catch all the action this summer at your library and the Trop!
Joe Maddon
Tampa Bay Rays Manager
Rays outfielder Fernando Perez, currently recovering from a wrist injury, helped kick off the Rays Summer Reading program by reading to youngsters at the Town and Country Regional Library in Tampa. Aimed at encouraging third, fourth and fifth graders in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee and Pasco Counties to read more this summer, the program is run in conjunction with the Helios Education Foundation and the St. Petersburg Times Reading in Education program.
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