Children at Grant Road School in Regina had a chance to meet their heroes, as members of the Saskatchewan Roughriders were on hand Tuesday to launch the Roughrider Foundation’s Rider reading program.
In the last year, this initiative visited 105 schools, completed 404 reading presentations and reached more than 12,000 students. Riders' receiver Mitchell Picton was joined by teammates Brett Lauther and Micah Johnson at the school gymnasium. Picton enjoys speaking and reading to the students and answering their questions.
“They’ve got a lot of interesting questions: 'Do you have a girlfriend? How much do you make?' And they’ve got a lot of questions about reading and mental wellness.”
“We get to share many stories about what we’ve gone through in our life and our path to becoming a professional athlete,” added Picton.
Conexus Credit Union supports the program’s delivery across the province with the Roughrider Foundation. CEO Celina Philpot said their involvement is about ensuring that everyone can reach their full potential.
“One of our core purposes at Conexus is to build a thriving Saskatchewan and we know through youth and children that they are the future and we need to invest in them to build those leaders for tomorrow.”
The Roughrider Foundation introduced the Passing Pages donation campaign in conjunction with the program. Roughrider Foundation executive director Cindy Fuchs explained the campaign highlights two impactful giving options:
“If you wanted to make a donation and give a Christmas gift, a hundred dollars gives five kids a first kindergarten book. A thousand dollars can give a whole classroom a first kindergarten book. And the book is delivered by the players, read to them and autographed.”
