In a recent move that combines literacy advocacy with community policing, Taylorsville Mayor Kristie Overson and officers from the Taylorsville Police Department (TVPD) took an afternoon off to promote the importance of reading. In collaboration with local Parent Teacher Associations, these officials served as guest readers in elementary schools across the city, aligning their efforts with Read Across America, the nation’s largest celebration of reading.
The TVPD shared their experience in a social media post, highlighting the remarkable word counts that are attainable with a regular reading habit, a message they hoped would resonate with the younger populace. The post, adorned with an array of book emojis, suggested that at the rate of 20 minutes reading daily, students could breeze through "about 2,400 words" in a single day. This pace translates to an impressive "16,800 words" weekly, and "over 870,000 words" in a year, as per the post on the Taylorsville Police Department Facebook page.
Comparing these figures to the workload of law enforcement and government officials, the post noted that an average police officer "reads and writes at least 15-20 reports per week," churning out "more than 15,000 words." Mayor Overson herself reportedly devours and articulates numbers of pages that run into the hundreds every month. This practical glimpse into the grown-up world of words served to underline the mantra that proficiency in reading and writing is not merely academic but a critical life skill.
Concluding their motivational post, the TVPD encourages all fifth-graders to "grab your favorite book and keep on reading." They assured the young readers that the benefits of this habit would ripple out to their future selves. As community leaders like Mayor Overson and the local police department lead by example, the TVPD expressed hope that these initiatives would foster a lifelong relationship between the youth of Taylorsville and the written word.
