JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The City of Jacksonville will host an event Saturday morning in honor of “Celebrate Reading Week" where Mayor Donna Deegan will speak more about the 'River City Readers Challenge', an initiative started with the goal of improving literacy rates across Jacksonville.
The event is open for children ages 5 to 12 and their families at the Main Library on Saturday. The event kicks off at 11:15 a.m. with a book character parade, free lunch and giveaways.
Mayor Deegan's River City Readers is meant to challenge school-aged kids to read at least 20 minutes a day. Families can register for the River City Readers Challenge by downloading a free app called 'Beanstack'.
Through this app, children and their caregivers will be able to log their reading.
According to city data, already over 600 readers registered for the app, and over 5700 hours have been logged in the app.
The goal is to boost reading scores.
"We know that 66 percent of our kids who aren't reading at grade level, by the fourth grade, either end up in jail or on welfare. And so that's really a statement about not only crime prevention, but also quality of life, and eventually something that affects the entire community," Mayor Deegan said.
At the end of the year, the city's top young readers will be given prizes.