sealPurdue News
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February 28, 2002

Purdue, community leaders booked as readers for area kids

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A diverse group of Purdue University and community leaders, including professors, politicians and point guards, will read to more than 400 Tippecanoe County area elementary students on Monday (3/4) as part of an annual national literacy awareness campaign.

The second annual "Reading is Leading, Reading Extravaganza," sponsored by Purdue's Barbara Cook Chapter of Mortar Board, runs from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Purdue Memorial Union, Room 118.

Purdue faculty, student-athletes, community leaders and Mortar Board members will share their love of books and the rewards of reading with preschool through second-grade students to kick off a week of promoting literacy.

Among the readers and their reading times are:

• 9:30 a.m. — Tom Turpin, professor of entomology; Robert Klatte, women's soccer head coach; Cathy Wright-Eger, women's swim team head coach; and student-athletes Andrew Ford, Christy Case, Jennie Moppert and Katie Crabtree.

• 10:30 a.m. — Patty Jischke, Purdue's first lady; Renee Thomas, director of the Black Cultural Center; Olateju Omolodun, assistant director of the Black Cultural Center; Wright-Eger; and Ford.

• Noon — Robert Taylor, professor of agricultural economics; Jeff Hulsmeyer, volleyball head coach; Alan York, professor of entomology; Margaret Rowe, vice provost and dean of School of Liberal Arts; and Crabtree.

• 1 p.m. — Congressman Brian Kerns (R-Ind.); Brian Breed, director of Purdue Musical Organizations; Richard Cosier, dean of the Krannert School of Management; and Susan Aufderheide, director of the Undergraduate Studies Program.

• 2 p.m. — Jeff Buchannan, student services computing and communications specialist; Dan Kinder, student service information manager; John Collier, university landscape architect; and Dennis Savaiano, dean of the School Consumer and Family Sciences.

An estimated 400-500 students from Cumberland, Miller, Washington, Battleground, Hershey, Burnett Creek and Village Preschool plan to attend.

Mortar Board members and alumni also will be supporting the national literacy awareness campaign by collecting new books to donate to after-school and children's programs at Purdue and in Greater Lafayette.

With 191 college chapters, the national Mortar Board organization promotes the "Reading Is Leading" project to give the senior honor society's members the chance to use leadership skills while performing community service by promoting knowledge.

Mortar Board members are selected for their achievements in scholarship, service to the university community and leadership. The society was founded at Syracuse University in 1918 as the first national organization honoring senior college women. In the fall of 1926, the Purdue Chapter of Mortar Board was chartered and is now celebrating its 75th anniversary. The society admitted men after 1975.

The Barbara Cook Chapter of Mortar Board is named to honor retired Dean of Students Barbara Cook, who advised the group from 1956 to 1986.

Writer: Grant Flora, (765) 494-2073, gflora@purdue.edu

Sources: Pablo Malavenda, associate dean of students, (765) 494-1232, pablo@purdue.edu

Maudie Roberts, Mortar Board Community Service Chairwoman, mrober23@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu


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