The 2011 Reading for Rewards program, presented by Wells Fargo, concluded on Friday, March 4 with the final assembly at Wilson Elementary School in Corona, California. Over the course of the reading program, Thunder visited 13 different cities and worked with over 100 local elementary schools, totaling 103 live performances. All students attending a school performance received a “Go Thunder Green” book. Additionally, schools that missed out on an assembly will receive a Reading for Rewards bookmark that the students and their parents will fill out, return to their teachers and eventually redeem for two free Storm tickets for their accomplishments. In total over 65,000 bookmarks were distributed to local students.
Over the last 11 years, the Storm has been one of the top promoters of literacy in Riverside County. “It’s been an honor to watch the reading program evolve the way that it has,” said Storm President Dave Oster. “It started as an idea to help kids stay out of trouble while promoting literacy to elementary level students. We are very proud to see what good things have come from this program.” Oster also added, “We will continue to strive to be one of the leaders in promoting the language arts as well as the Going Green Movement.”
“Go Thunder Green: Thunder’s Guide to Going Green” was produced, written and illustrated by members of the Storm front office staff at the end of the 2008 baseball season. The book contains a five stanza introduction revealing Thunder’s efforts to help the world by “Going Green” as well as a poem that details Thunder’s eight tips to help our environment. “We reached more students this year than ever before,” said Storm Director of Mascot Operations Patrick Gardenier. “On behalf of Thunder, I would like to say thank you to everyone that was involved in this year’s reading program.” Students can redeem their ticket vouchers for the following dates: Sunday, April 10, Friday, April 22, Sunday, May 8, Wednesday, May 18 and Sunday, May 22.
