The Brevard County Manatees and Manny the Manatee have also been active in the community, visiting many of the schools participating in Hitting the Books. Manny the Manatee has visited twelve schools in the past month and is scheduled to visit at least ten others this month. "It has been nice seeing kids from all over Brevard County get excited to see Manny. He's a rock star to these kids," said Webber. During many of the school visits, Manny the Manatee has performed a reading skit that involves student participation. "The kids have loved the reading skit. Sometimes the older kids get more excited than the younger ones."
Hitting the Books is a reading program created to encourage literacy in Brevard County schools for students, grades kindergarten through eighth grade. During the four-week program, students receive a bookmark that includes a picture of a baseball diamond provided by the Brevard County Manatees and Health First. Teachers establish weekly reading guidelines for their classes. At the conclusion of each week of the program, the teachers initial a base on the bookmark. Upon completion of the program, students bring their signed bookmark to any Tuesday Manatees' game and receive two free tickets. "We hope to see all of the students at the ballpark this year. We want them to read and we want them to be rewarded for reading."
Dates for Hitting the Books participants to use their bookmarks include:
April 13, 2010 @ 7:05pm
May 4, 2010 @ 7:05pm
May 11, 2010 @ 7:05pm
May 18, 2010 @ 7:05pm
June 22, 2010 @ 7:05pm
July 6, 2010 @ 7:05pm
August 3, 2010 @ 7:05pm
August 17, 2010 @ 7:05pm
August 24, 2010 @ 7:05pm
*excludes June 8, 2010
