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Monday, February 25, 2008
Naperville, IL – Nicor is proud to bring back its Adventures in Reading with Nicor program to Zenon J. Sykuta Elementary School. Adventures in Reading with Nicor is a unique reading program designed to foster a life-long love of reading among children. Super Reader; the program's costumed super hero will arrive at Sykuta on Friday, February 29th to congratulate and reward students for their "super reader" skills and for reading more than 10,000 books within 6 months.
The program, Adventures in Reading with Nicor, is a unique reading program designed to foster a life-long love of reading among children through a four pronged approach:
- Providing free books to students and their parents through scheduled distributions three times a year
- Train educators in the newest strategies for the teaching of reading
- Instruct parents on how to encourage their children to become better readers
- Contributing motivational prizes and activities for students and parents; with assembly presentations by Nicor's super hero, Super Reader
"When an elementary school's students read more than 10,000 books in 6 months, it demonstrates how a program like Adventures in Reading with Nicor can help children learn to love reading," said Julian Brown, Nicor Gas Corporate Contributions Manager.
To compliment the program Nicor created a mascot -- Super Reader -- who helps to promote the program and encourage children to get excited about reading. Prior to Super Reader arriving at a school, students are given score cards and begin reading books. After a student has read a book, they review it by filling out the score card. Completed score cards are collected by their teachers and submitted to Nicor for a chance to win a prize on assembly days.
Super Reader visits the schools on assembly days which are held twice a year. "Visits from Super Reader are the most motivating part of our program. The children just love Super Reader and every time he visits a school he is treated like a rock star. On many occasions, students have asked their teachers to make sure Super Reader is aware of how many books they've read," continued Brown.
Nicor's program also hosts book distributions at each participating school three times a year. On book distribution days, Nicor employee volunteers read to students in their class rooms between assemblies. "Our volunteers serve as positive role models to these young students by providing them with an opportunity to see with their own eyes, educated and successful Nicor employee volunteers reading to them while sitting at the head of the class. By encouraging the importance of reading through example, we hope to add to the percentage of these students who will graduate and go on to college," said Brown.
At the assembly this Friday at Zenon J. Sykuta School, Super Reader will encourage students to read by his example and assist with distributing free books and prizes to students. He will also help kick off the event by sharing a new story titled Super Reader and the Library Mystery. This story is about how Super Reader encourages students to solve a mystery by gaining knowledge through reading books. In the end, the students also help a new character become a "super reader." Prior to his appearance there will be a life-sized cutout of Super Reader available at the school, so the students who have completed reading score cards can place their faces in the cutout and pose for pictures as Super Reader's apprentice.
Nicor Inc. (NYSE: GAS) is a holding company and is a member of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. Its primary business is Nicor Gas, one of the nation's largest natural gas distribution companies. Nicor owns Tropical Shipping, a containerized shipping business serving the Caribbean region and the Bahamas. In addition, the company owns and has an equity interest in several energy-related businesses. For more information, visit the Nicor Web site at www.nicor.com.
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