“You are the earth,” Kansas City Interim Superintendent Jennifer Collier said, reading for a community audience the district hopes will keep on growing.

“Strength, power and beauty lie within you . . .”

For the kickoff of a community-wide reading campaign, Collier read live on Facebook from the children’s book, All Because You Matter.

The book’s message fit the campaign’s theme for its first month — belonging.

The district wants children, parents, caregivers, adults, community partners like LINC and others to pick up books and show universally that “KCPS Loves to Read.”

“As a district, we must carve out time to read for joy, exploration and growth,” Collier said. “We want our students to see that reading is for everyone.”

LINC has always been an advocate for encouraging children and their families to read, frequently teaming up over the years with First Book to distribute diverse books to children that they take home as their own.

The KCPS Loves to Read campaign will include dedicated time on the first Wednesday of each month when everyone in the district, children and adults, will all “Stop and Read.”

Students in all grades will be encouraged to set and pursue reading goals as well as participate in programming for social and emotional wellbeing. Adults will be encouraged to read with children, special guests will be reading in the schools, read-alongs will happen in many languages, and Facebook live readings will continue through the year.

The campaign highlights that literacy is essential to learning and student success, and it aims to use the power of books to fuel the inner strength of children with the campaign’s themes of friendship, curiosity, confidence, courage, hope and the opening month’s theme — belonging.

“You were dreamed of,” Collier said, reading on, “carried like a knapsack full of wishes . . . your people, your dreams, your future.

“All because since the beginning of time you mattered, they mattered, we mattered, and always will.”

Learn more at KCPS Loves to Read.