Spurs Sports & Entertainment helps schools lasso literacy with 2nd Annual Rodeo Read Trip

Spurs Sports & Entertainment began today its second annual Rodeo Read Trip, a staff-wide service effort to generate pride and enthusiasm for learning and reading and to promote education in AT&T Center neighborhood schools. Over the course of the Spurs and Rampage Rodeo Road Trip, SS&E employees will close offices on three different days to volunteer about 2,700 hours of their time by participating in various literacy projects in partnership with the San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) and the Eastside Promise Neighborhood.
 
In its second year, the Rodeo Read Trip is a continuation of SS&E’s year-long literacy project with schools in the AT&T Center neighborhood. Rodeo Read Trip will focus on six elementary schools and two middle schools in the Sam Houston High School feeder pattern. Participating schools include: Bowden Elementary, Cameron Elementary, Gates Elementary, Hirsch Elementary, Miller Elementary, Pershing Elementary, Davis Middle School and Wheatley Middle School.
 
Eight SS&E teams will be assigned to each participating school to focus on projects including: delivering books to schools, reading to students, and assisting in writing short stories. Additional surprises are in store for the students and staff participating throughout the Rodeo Read Trip.
 
Each of the 3,700 students participating in Rodeo Read Trip will get their own Home Library Starter Kits containing age-appropriate books, a reading light, bookmarks, pencils, a journal and a backpack. In addition, SS&E will purchase several titles from BiblioTech to give students across San Antonio access to books online wherever they are.
 
“Spurs Sports & Entertainment has committed to improving our neighborhood and starting with the area’s youth ensures a better future for the area,” said Bobby Perez, Senior Vice President General Counsel and Corporate Relations for SS&E. “We hope to create a legacy of literacy in SAISD families, many of whom don’t have access to age-appropriate books at home.”
 
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress 43 percent of students who test in the lowest level of literacy live in poverty. Furthermore, “The Literacy Crisis” found that 61 percent of low income families have no age appropriate books in their home for children. The ability to read is a fundamental building block to ensuring success in school and beyond. Through the Rodeo Read Trip, SS&E hopes to move the literacy needle in the schools surrounding the AT&T Center while addressing one of SA2020’s eleven key causes: education. 
 
Stay up to date with the Rodeo Read Trip by visiting Spurs.com/ReadTrip and by using the hashtag #ReadTripSA on Twitter.