News Releases
Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - November 6, 2003
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Gov. Gary Locke Surprises Skykomish Student with Grand Prize Award in 2003 Governor’s Summer Reading Challenge

Gov. Gary Locke today surprised a Skykomish kindergartener with a grand prize trip for four to Disneyland for participating in the 2003 Governor’s Summer Reading Challenge.

Five-year-old Sarah Quinlan of Skykomish School accepted the prize today in front of her parents and 70 of her schoolmates and teachers. Quinlan was selected at random from the nearly 6,000 young people who participated in the Governor’s Summer Reading Challenge this year.

Locke urged all Washington students under the age of 18 to read 15 hours or more before Labor Day and report their success to him via e-mail or letter. Students were able to participate through various summer reading programs or by reading on their own.

Locke started the Governor’s Summer Reading Challenge in 2002 to encourage Washington students to continue reading during summer vacation and add to the reading gains they made during the previous school year.

“Reading is the key to your academic success,” Locke told the students today. “I am so proud of all the young people who met my challenge. You are all winners because you are all good readers.”

The governor also thanked Alaska Airlines and Renaissance Hotel for sponsoring the trip for four to Disneyland.

In her e-mail to the governor informing him that she had met his challenge, Quinlan wrote, “I liked ‘Jack and the Beanstalk,’ ‘The Tugboat’ and all the Dr. Seuss books. I have read as many as I can.”

Locke today also awarded an honorary reading challenge certificate to Jody-Anne Cherish, a volunteer at the South Sound Reading Foundation and student at South Puget Sound Community College. Cherish was functionally illiterate three years ago. She wrote to the governor this summer, telling him she met his reading challenge and was inspired by his leadership on literacy.

In her letter to the governor, Cherish wrote, “Thank you for encouraging families and children to read. Illiteracy is a darkness that only those it touches can truly understand.”

Locke today thanked his reading challenge partners, including:
· State and public libraries
· Washington Reading Corps members and staff
· The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
· The National Children’s Reading Foundation
· Page Ahead

# # #

Related Link: http://www.governor.wa.gov/summerreadingchallenge/default.asp




» Return to this month's News Releases
» View News Release Archive

Access Washington