ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — “Reading with the Rays” is back for its 16th season this summer.
Before Wednesday’s home game, Tampa Bay Rays outfielder and first baseman Luke Raley spent his morning reading to third graders at Campbell Park Elementary School.
The “Reading with the Rays” program encourages students to read throughout the summer. It’s an incentive-based program to keep kids engaged during the summer while offering prizes and tickets to a Rays game.
For Raley, if he was not a professional baseball player, he had other career plans.
“When I was in college, I was studying to be an education major. It’s important to me,” Raley said. “I am glad I got to come out here and read with the kids.”
He admits there may have been times when reading wasn’t fun for a younger Raley. Often he’d find himself flipping through the pages of Sports Illustrated. But, now, he knows the value of a book.
“I wouldn’t say I was a bookworm; I liked to play outside too much to be a bookworm,” Raley said. “I did read. My parents read to me a lot. I did know the importance of reading. I definitely did it, but I was more of an outside kind of person.
Raley’s all-time favorite book: Is Where the Red Fern Grows.
“I know it’s more advanced than the third grade,” Raley said. “I’m a big dog lover. That book hit home.”
A bigger hit — taking a positive message away from what you’re reading.
“That’s a big part of book is teaching lessons,” Raley said. “Being able to bring those lessons up and have conversations about them, not only for them, but everyone to be able to see and learn from that. What I am reading actually affects my everyday life.”
