Members of the Troy Kiwanis Club visited OCAP Troy Head Start Thursday to celebrate the March 2 birthday of popular children’s author Dr. Seuss.

Dr. Seuss’ birthday is celebrated in every city and every hamlet in the United States as part of the National Education Association’s Read Across America initiative, an annual reading motivation and awareness program that calls for every child in every community to celebrating reading.

Ed Averett, Kiwanis president, said the Kiwanis Club acknowledges the important role reading plays in the lives of children – in school and in life.

“Reading is Fundamental and it’s fun,” said Bart Wallace, Kiwanis member. “As a service club, Kiwanis wants to do all we can to encourage young people to read. The earlier they learn that reading is fun, the more likely they are to continue reading throughout their lives.”

Each year, the Troy Kiwanis Club makes time to read to the children at Troy Head Start and also purchases books for each of the children to take home.

Averett said it is important for children to have books of their own as encouragement to read and as a means of instilling pride in ownership.

“The Troy Kiwanis Club purchased 120 books for the children at Troy Head Start,” Averett said. “We do this three times a year. The books are purchased with funds from the annual Kiwanis Princess Ball, which is a father/daughter event.”

Dorsey Fayson, OCAP Troy Head Start, center manager, said the children are always excited to have the Kiwanis Club members read to them and are especially excited to have a book of their own.

“We appreciate the Troy Kiwanis Club for its continuing support of our children here at Troy Head Start,” Fayson said. “Reading is Fundamental and we thank the members of the Kiwanis Club for coming to read to the children and for their generous gift of books.”

OCAP Troy Head Start is now recruiting children for school year 2018-2019. Applications are available at OCAP Troy Head Start and the OCAP Center. For more information, call 334-566-1712 or 566-6959.