Every year, Read for the Record connects millions of teachers and students across the country in support of one common goal: early childhood literacy. Jumpstart’s Read for the Record event challenges students of all ages to discuss the critical importance of literacy in their lives. At Johnson, this event is especially important as Jumpstart’s main goal is so important to us – the company’s #1 concern for elementary school students is kindergarten readiness, or helping students to enter school for kindergarten prepped with the tools that will help them to become enthusiastic, successful learners.

This year, Johnson was lucky enough to collaborate with the University of Virginia Athletics Department to bring some special guests to school to read with our students. On Monday, eight members of the all-star University of Virginia football team joined us to read, discuss, and even play for the love of reading.

I’ll skip the summaries and let the pictures do the talking here – I have no words that can tell you how much this meant to our students. Hopefully these photos will show you the joy and excitement that came to Johnson with these talented, kind, and genuine guys.

Saying that the kids were excited about these visit would be the understatement of the year! Although we all stress the importance of reading on a daily basis, hearing these words come from the mouths of students’ idols is an experience that they will never forget. We were all very happy to add some new, very kind (and very TALL) friends to the Johnson family.

Thank you so much to our friends at the University of Virginia who worked so hard to make our Read for the Record event a success. Especially to the lovely young men who spent the day learning, laughing, playing, and teaching with students who will remember this day for years to come.

Read for the Record was featured on the NBC29 evening news! Watch the video here.