– READ TO ACHIEVE – BRS teams up with Grizzlies for countywide student pep rally

Roald Dahl once said, “If you are going to get anywhere in life, you have to read a lot of books.”

With this thought in mind, Big River Steel has teamed up with the Memphis Grizzlies to encourage reading among all children in the Mid-South.

Read to Achieve, presented by BRS and KPMG, is an initiative by the Grizzlies to encourage students to read and develop a love for reading. The program challenges students across the Greater Memphis area to read 20 minutes a day every day for six weeks, promoting literacy awareness in the community.  Each year, the program touches the lives of over 30,000 Mid-South students through the Grizzlies Reading Challenge.

The Read to Achieve program has led the Grizzlies to hold various community events throughout the years, including pep rally and classroom visits with appearances by the Grizzlies' mascot 'Grizz,' the Grizz Girls, the Claw Crew and often Grizzlies players and coaches. Schools have benefited from these appearances with library upgrades, school supplies, reading prizes, books, Grizzlies merchandise, free library cards and more.

This past week, the Grizzlies traveled to Osceola, to further spread literacy awareness and engagement across the Mid-South.

The pep rally, held at the Seminole Arena, featured games, competitions and prizes. In attendance were students from all the Mississippi County Schools including Armorel, Blytheville, Buffalo Island Central, Carroll Smith, Gosnell, Rivercrest, and Manila Justin Veach Elementaries.

Students had the opportunity to interact and have fun with the Claw Crew, Grizz Girls, Grizz and the Osceola High School Cheerleaders.

Welcoming the students to the “pep rally”, Dan Brown Vice-President, Chief Operating Officer Big River Steel Works, said, ““Big River Steel is proud to partner with Mississippi County, Osceola High School and the Memphis Grizzlies in sponsoring the Read to Achieve program. We have all six of the school districts in the county represented with some 1,500 plus students. We are excited to help inspire reading in our schools.”