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Donations Result In Summer Reading Books For City Kindergarteners

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Summer break is just days away for students of the Pittsburgh City School District.

While students will be out of the classroom, they will still be learning thanks to a generous donation to the district's kindergarteners.

Thursday was an exciting day at Morrow Elementary School as all of the kindergarten students received not one, but two books to take home.

Baierl Automotive and the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers provided the book and they are not just for students at Morrow.

A total of 5,000 were handed out to every kindergartener in the Pittsburgh Public School system.

"Just to be able to participate in something that would help encourage younger students and younger children to read is really exciting for us," Baierl Automotive Vice President Bob Baierl

With just a few days of class left, educators said the timing of the event is perfect. The idea is to make sure the kids have something to read over the summer months.

"Some kids lose things, you lose things over the summer, you forgot things, adults do also. Reading gives you the opportunity to keep things in focus," Nina Esposito-Visgitis of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers said.

"At any age, kids do experience summer learning loss, unless you really make effort to make sure they retain what they learned during the school year over the summer. Reading is a big part of that and so that's why we believe summer reading is so important," Superintendent Dr. Linda Lane said.

After the books were distributed, visitors read to the kids in the kindergarten classrooms.

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