Read Across America Day 2023 Recap

March 2, 2023, was Read Across America (RAA) Day! This literacy holiday was created in 1998 by the National Education Association (NEA) and is the nation’s largest celebration of reading. Every year, NEA chooses a theme to coincide with the day, this month’s being “Build Communities Together”, as a way of validating the lived experiences of everyone.

The 2023 campaign was a great success! Our posts on Twitter were seen more than 4,200 times and we reached over 1,200 people on Facebook. In addition, partners, families, and local organizations joined in on the fun.

With the help of our partners, The Literacy Cooperative invited families to post photos on social media of them reading with their community using the hashtags #ClevelandReads and #TogetherWeRead. Those who posted photos were entered into a raffle to win one of several family gift baskets, filled with goodies generously donated by University Settlement, Family Connections, Ideastream Public Media, MedWorks, Cleveland Public Library, Cuyahoga County Public Library, and Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

Save the date: Continue the celebration on April 20, 2023, at the Read Across America Celebration where Ohio First Lady Fran DeWine will be the keynote speaker.

We want to express our thanks and appreciation to all of our partners who were involved in this year’s campaign: Ideastream Public Media, Cleveland Public Library, Cuyahoga County Public Library, University Settlement, Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Family Connections, Reach Out and Read, RMHC® Northeast Ohio, author Tricia Springstubb, and Cleveland Reads, the city-wide reading campaign!