Buffalo Rising

On Thursday, October 7th, thousands of local children, educators and adults, passionate about literacy will join a national movement attempting to set the world record for the largest number of children reading the same book on the same day with a participating adult.

Read to Succeed Buffalo is joining the national Read for the Record campaign and has been working diligently to organize reading sites and groups across Buffalo for the event.

"We're trying to get as many schools, daycare, childcare and community centers involved as possible," said Deborah Porter, Community Outreach Coordinator for Read to Succeed.

Parker has also been busy organizing a number of "celebrity" readers as well. The list currently includes Sheriff Tim Howard, Senator Antoine Thompson, WKBW's Kyla Igoe, local poet Sherry Robbins and Mayor Byron Brown who will all read at various locations around Buffalo.

Last year's local participation totaled close to 14,000 readers from the Western New York area ( and over 2 million nationally). "I'm excited because many of the organizations already signed up were not participants last year, making it a high possibility that we will break our record this year," she said.


Ezra Jake Keats The Snowy Day (a 1963 Caldecott Medal winner) has been chosen as this year's book. Past books have included Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar (2009), Corduroy (2008), The Story of Ferdinand (2007), and The Little Engine That Could (2006).

NBC will also be hosting readers on its morning show. Readers include Patti LaBelle, and actresses Amanda Peet and Jennifer Stone.

The campaign, Read for the Record, started by the Jumpstart organization in Boston five years ago began as an effort to promote literacy, particularly in low income communities where it has been reported that up to 61% of families do not have age appropriate books in their homes.

Any individual or organization interested in participating is eligible. Jumpstart's website hosts flyers and tools to organize your own reading and even allows for you to read the entire book online.

For more information or for assistance in registering you can either visit Jumpstart's website at www.readfortherecord.org, or call Deborah Parker at Read to Succeed Buffalo at 716-843-8895.