Ariz. Gov. Doug Ducey visits Phoenix school to encourage summer reading

PHOENIX —  Just ahead of summer vacation, when most elementary school children look forward to relaxing and playing all day, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey stopped by a Phoenix school to give them one last message: don’t put down the books.

Ducey and his wife Angela visited Basis Phoenix Central School on Monday and read “The Day the Crayons Quit” by Drew Daywalt to a class of kindergartners.

“It’s great to be here today and kick off summer reading for our Arizona public schools and have such models of excellence that we can brag about across the country and around the world,” Ducey said.

The visit was not only to celebrate the upcoming summer months, but to also encourage the youngsters to continue to read during their vacation and demonstrate the importance of doing so.

“We’re hopeful to be able to do more of this in coming years,” Ducey said.  “And my wife Angela is going to be out doing three more of these summer reading events over the next several weeks and we think it’s very important in the down time we have in the summer.”

“Are you going to read a lot over the summer?” Ducey asked the group of enthusiastic kindergartners, who responded “yes” in unison.

The governor also asked the kids if they would keep working hard in school and listen to their parents, both of which received loud and proud yeses from the group.

Not only did every child take home brand-new knowledge on the importance of reading, but also brand-new books, which were donated by the Scholastic Book Company.