HCC alumni and staff participate in Read Across the Globe day

Oct 19, 2015

Houston Community College alumni did their part to help set a new Guinness world record during the “Read Across the Globe” event on October 19. The goal was to read to 300,000 children around the world- 100,000 just in Houston, for 30 minutes — all in a 24-hour period, to promote the importance of literacy.

“Most kids don’t read anymore,” said Tanesa McCabe, former HCC student and volunteer reader. “I want to tell them this is something you should continue to do and in the professional world we do read and write a lot.”

The numbers are staggering. According to the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation, 32 million American adults are considered functionally illiterate and 2/3 of children entering the 4th grade are not reading proficiently. This literacy crisis includes Houston.

“Literacy has been the key philanthropic focus of my mom who recognizes if you can’t read at an age appropriate level, then you will never be able to realize your full potential”, said Neil Bush, chairman, Points of Light & Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation.

The Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation, Points of Light, and Volunteer Houston, with national sponsor support, organized the reading marathon. Volunteers read Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Eric–Shabazz Larkin to hundreds of students at participating elementary schools across the Greater Houston area.

“I read to my kids on a daily basis and thought this would be a really good way to give back for kids who may have trouble reading or want to get into reading,” said Jerome Roseborough, former HCC student and volunteer reader.

The world should know in the weeks to come if there is a new reading record for this initiative.