The Hill County United Way hosted its Plant a Seed... Read! day Saturday in the Holiday Village Mall.
Local volunteers worked to help emphasize the importance of reading to children at an early age.
“The United Way has taken this education community impact project on to impress on our community the importance of reading aloud to children very early on, when the brain is developing, ” Hill County United Way Executive Director Lorraine Verploegen said, “So the connections can be made and kept, and so they gain experience in how books work so when they get started in school they have a great start. ”
The event was kicked off by Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who happened to be in town already.
Schweitzer read a book called “First Dog" about the experiences of his own dog, Jag, as they went to Helena and explored the Capitol.
Children gathered around the fountain in the middle of the mall as the governor read, his wife Nancy showed off the pictures and Jag laid between them.
“It worked out perfectly, because I think that it showed not only the children, but the parents, that education and books are important, ” Verploegen said. “I thought it was very nice. ”
Following the reading, Schweitzer signed copies of "The Governor’s Dog Is Missing" with the book’s author and the event’s guest Sneed Collard III.
Throughout the afternoon children gathered in one of the stores in the mall, where a dozen tables were set up with a variety of activities, from making collages to getting fingerprints taken for Child ID Kits by local law enforcement.
