Media

Area officials take time to put red noses in books

Michelle L. Quinn
Post-Tribune correspondent - Friday, September 9, 2005

HAMMOND — When U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville, drove past Barnes & Noble Booksellers a few days ago, he couldn’t bring himself to stop.

Having just returned from dropping his oldest son off at college, he couldn’t help but reminisce about how the two of them would go into the store and read together, and it made him sad. His best memories are of how he read to his sons, and that is why he was more than happy to don a red nose from 10 to 10:15 a.m. Thursday in support of "Time Out for Reading." "You might call it courage, but I’d call it selfishness," Visclosky said of the reason he championed adult education programs in legislative session this year. "Even though I thought if I had to read ’Smokey, the Best Firefighter in the World’ one more time I would die, I treasure the time spent reading to my sons."

Visclosky was among the dignitaries at the event’s recent kickoff breakfast at the Main Branch of the Hammond Public Library. In its third year, "Time Out for Reading" marks a 15-minute period of time where schools and businesses literally stop and celebrate reading, said Steve Watson, president of Hammond Reads Inc. and the Northwest Indiana Literacy Project.

"It’s a way to get everyone simultaneously involved in reading," Watson said. "It’s an easy act for everyone."

And an act that is picking up momentum.

Limited to Hammond just three years ago, the program has expanded through Lake County to Porter, LaPorte and Jasper counties, Watson said, and South Bend also is looking to get in on the fun.

Besides being a basic skill, reading does quite a bit more, said Bank Calumet CEO Cal Bellamy, who emceed the kickoff.

"Did you know that reading has medicinal purposes and makes for better attendance at sporting events?" he asked.

Hammond Public Schools Superintendent Walter Watkins said the schools use the program to emphasize to students the importance of reading.

"More important, we want to impress the notion of reading to the parents," Watkins said. "If we get the younger kids involved, they have a better understanding that they’ll do well in school if they can read.

"There is nothing more essential than the ability to read, so we want students to get the foundation early."

To that end, Hammond students participated in various activities, such as reading aloud on radio station WJOB. Meanwhile, judges in the Federal Courthouse sponsored activities such as translating the Preamble of the Constitution in Spanish. And everyone wore a red nose to do it, Watson said.

"We chose the red nose to accentuate putting your nose in a book," he said. "It was something different."

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