For a long time, the San Jose Sharks’ Foundation has been involved in local Bay Area K-5 schools to motivate younger kids in different aspects. Their Reading is Cool Program — a literacy program that runs from October to March — was a big part of Branham students’ elementary school experience.

According to the San Jose Sharks’ official website, the Reading is Cool Program is designed to increase a student’s or a class’s total reading minutes each month. Students must keep track of their minutes on physical student reading logs. Teachers can submit individual students who have shown improvement, made an effort or read the most minutes for awards or to be featured on the Sharks’ website. 

Students like sophomore Julia Quimby, who won an All-Star Reader Medal in third grade, were encouraged to read because of the award. At Bagby, her elementary school, Quimby remembers that when the program was first introduced to her classroom, she was inspired to read as much as possible to earn the medal.

“The classroom had a giant graph, and you would mark off how many books you’ve read,” Quimby said. “I was also competing with my friends, so I also wanted to win [an award].”

Similarly, sophomore Parker Higley also remembers participating in the program at a young age. Higley also attended Bagby and recalls when he won a medal in third grade for having the most reading minutes in his grade. As someone who enjoyed reading at a young age, Higley thought the Reading is Cool program was a good thing to establish amongst elementary school kids.

“I do like reading, [and] I think it was a cool idea,” Higley said. “It was a good program that got kids involved, and I thought it was a good opportunity to read more and get rewarded for it.”

Hockey fans like English teacher Bobbi Arduini often keep up with the Sharks’ news. Arduini has been a Sharks fan for the past 15 years and follows the team and its foundation’s updates through their newsletters.

“They will share [what] the Sharks Foundation is doing, including the schools that they’ve gone to visit, [and] different ways that they’ve gotten to support education in the Bay Area,” Arduini said.

Arduini addresses the importance of establishing connections among local Bay Area schools.    

“I do think that it’s really important for a sports team to have community connections and to give back to the community, because I feel like the camaraderie that is fostered through shared love of sports for a team in particular areas is something that’s really powerful,” Arduini said. “And so I think that it’s great that they try to do different things to get involved in the schools.” 

By incorporating this program at a young age, Quimby notes how it has impacted her personally.

“I don’t know if I directly noticed [an impact educationally], but I do like to read now, and I feel like my reading a lot as a kid did impact that,” Quimby said.

According to the World Literacy Foundation, consistent reading, especially at a young age,  provides numerous benefits. From helping process information, understanding instructions to analyzing information and forming individual opinions, the website notes that repeated reading patterns “build confidence in communication and self-expression…that extend into academic and professional life.” 

Likewise, Higley comments that he’s noticed his love for reading helped him improve his literacy skills when he consistently kept up with the task. In recent years, however, as he has been reading less, Higley has noticed the impact of that, too.  

“I stayed reading for a while, and I do really well in my English and stuff. I was a little ahead of my reading level, so I think that helped me throughout school and helped with comprehension on tests and stuff like that,” Higley said. “I definitely saw it in middle school, and now, when I don’t read as much as I like, I definitely noticed a little bit of an impact on my English, like on my PSAT scores. I feel like I actually could have answered those questions better two years ago when I was still reading more.”

Higley reflects on the good qualities of the Sharks’ program. He agrees that the program does a good job at encouraging young kids to read, and if the Sharks Foundation were to continue this program in older grade levels, they would be sure to get more participation. 

“If they had a high school program or player to come [visit schools], that would definitely encourage kids [to read] because a lot of kids are pretty passionate about sports, especially in high school,” Higley said. 

However, Arduini emphasizes that foundations and programs like these have to be consistent with their appearances. Without the consistency, it can be easy to fall back on the program and its purpose.

“I do think that there needs to be a consistent involvement. It can’t just be like a one-off thing where you’ve got like a celebrity or Sharkie coming to the school once,” Arduini said. “It has to be in the DNA of the school itself, that learning and reading is important.”

From his time with the program in elementary school, Higley can attest that the Sharks have positively impacted students. The official Sharks Foundation lists that they have given more than $21 million back to Bay Area organizations to ensure their vision in which young people in the area have access to “quality education, essential wellness resources and opportunities to engage with and grow through the game of hockey.” For him, Higley felt that the team cared about making an impact on elementary kids across the Bay.

“They care about San Jose, and they care about the community,” Higley said. “I think that was definitely a big image. I like the Sharks. I don’t watch sports very much, but I think out of all the teams I could pick to watch, it would probably be the Sharks.”

Image courtesy of San Jose Sharks