Rivkah Remarks

Role models matter because they inspire us to do better and be better.
July 19, 2019
Rivkah Sass in Sacramento Room
Who are your role models? Who has made an impact on your life? Was it Mrs. Moore, your first-grade teacher who paved the way for you to become a reader? Mr. Kurt, your Little League coach who taught you the delayed steal? Whoever it was, role models matter because they inspire us to do better and be better.
 
Are you ready to be a role model? It’s simple. Sit down, pour yourself a glass of iced tea, make sure the kids in your life are in sight, pick up a book and start to read. Studies, data and common sense have told us that kids who see adults reading are more likely to read. We all know that kids are great mimics. When they see us enjoying a book, they understand it is a fun and pleasurable thing to do.
 
It’s still summer and we’re on the way to reading 650,000 books. Won’t you help? It isn’t too late for you and all the kids in your life to join Summer Reading. We have terrific prizes like bags for adults, swim passes for kids, and free books for kids and teens. Whether it’s the first book they can call their own or the 100th, having access to books can change their lives, and the format doesn’t matter — listening to books, reading ebooks, and reading good old-fashioned print.
 
Author Neil Gaiman, who will visit Sacramento in 2020 to deliver the Arbuthnot Lecture, said it best in his masterpiece on creativity, Art Matters: “We have an obligation to read for pleasure. If others see us reading, we show that reading is a good thing.”