Two Kanawha magistrates to participate in Read Across America Day

CHARLESTON -- Two Kanawha County magistrates will participate in Read Across America Day on March 2 by administering the "Reader's Oath" to students at two Kanawha County elementary schools.

Magistrate Kim Aaron will deliver the oath at 8 a.m. to students at Chesapeake Elementary School, and Magistrate Julie Yeager will deliver the oath at 8 a.m. to students at Montrose Elementary School.

Read Across America Day is an annual event held on March 2, the birthday of the late Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss.

The magistrates' participation in the event is part of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia's Robes to Schools program. The goal of Robes to Schools is to have active and retired justices, circuit judges, family court judges, and magistrates make regular appearances in West Virginia schools. In the two-part program, judicial officers read to elementary school students, and they participate in a speaker's bureau to talk to elementary, middle and high school classes about the judicial system.

The "Reader's Oath" was written by Debra Angstead of Missouri:

I promise to read
Each day and each night,
I know it's the key
To growing up right.
I'll read to myself
I'll read to a crowd.
It makes no difference
If silent or loud.

I'll read at my desk,
At home and at school,
On my bean bag or bed,
By the fire or pool.

Each book that I read
Puts smarts in my head,
Cause brains grow more thoughts

So I take this oath
To make reading my way
Of feeding my brain
What it needs every day.