2006 Read for the Record Campaign
This year, on September 20th, Jumpstart’s Read for the Record 2007 Campaign will generate public awareness by creating the largest “shared reading experience” ever by breaking the record set on a single day in August 2006, when 150,000 people read the same book across the country as part of Jumpstart’s Read for the Record inaugural campaign.
Pearson was pleased to support last year’s inaugural event, which took place on August 24th in cities and towns across America – and included volunteers from 40 Pearson businesses across the country.
Together, Pearson people and businesses helped to raise more than $1,000,000 to support Jumpstart in the course of last year’s Campaign. We underwrote and published a custom limited edition of The Little Engine That Could sold at U.S. Starbucks Coffee Company stores, and on the big day helped to set the Guinness World Record™ for number of children being read the same book on the same day took in local Read for the Record celebrations from coast to coast.
This one-of-a-kind national event helped raise awareness of the importance of early literacy and the role Jumpstart plays everyday in the lives of young children. While many preschoolers benefit from nearly 2,000 hours of one-to-one reading with an adult by kindergarten, others are exposed to as few as 25 hours (in total). Research shows that such early deficits lead to a performance gap that persists throughout school and into adulthood, contributing to additional social issues, such as dropping out of school, unemployment and crime.
On August 24, The Little Engine That Could with its “I Think Can”™ message took the spotlight as people of all ages read this classic while setting the world record for the most individuals reading the same book in a single day.
Throughout the month of August, a custom limited edition of The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper (with new artwork by Loren Long), was sold in more than 5,000 U.S. Starbucks stores. With 100% underwriting by Pearson, all proceeds from the $9.95 Starbucks sales price benefited Jumpstart and its work with at-risk preschoolers across the country.
NBC’s Matt Lauer wrote the foreword to the custom limited edition and with others—including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former New York Mayor Ray Koch, and former Monkee Mickey Dolenz—took part in Read for the Record live on the Today Show. Hundreds of children gathered at Rockefeller Center around a replica of The Little Engine for reading activities occurring most of the day.
In New York, and in cities including Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, and Washington DC, Pearson people took part in Read for the Record celebrations; read The Little Engine That Could; and even helped young people create their own personalized ABC books based on the Pearson Foundation’s “Family Book Nights” program.
In other cities across the county—at schools, shopping malls, football stadiums, Pearson offices, and at lots of other locations—Pearson people came out in force to help set the record for the Number of Children Reading a Single Book on the Same Day.
