St. Clair County Sheriff Richard "Rick" Watson was a celebrity reader for the Whiteside Elementary School's Read-Aloud Program Friday morning.
The program is for pre-K, kindergarten, and first grade students, and is held each morning in the gymnasium. Older students are also allowed time to read to themselves, in an adjacent area before the school day officially begins. The school has an outreach program with Scott Air Force Base, and military officers usually read to the students on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Parents of Whiteside students are encouraged to do the reading on Mondays and Fridays, and share those days with celebrity readers from the community.
The books are projected via a computer hookup onto a screen in the gym for everyone to see so they can follow along with the words and pictures in the storybook. Sheriff Watson read two books for the students, and gave each of them bookmarks. TIM VIZER — tvizer@bnd.com
