BAMSL and Bring Me a Book St. Louis Partner for Annual Read Across America Celebration

The Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis (BAMSL) and Bring Me a Book St. Louis recently partnered to spread the love of reading to local elementary schools in the metropolitan St. Louis region during the annual Read Across America event.

BAMSL participates annually in the nation's largest reading celebration, the National Education Association's (NEA) annual Read Across America Day. This year's celebration was held on Fri., March 1 to celebrate the birthday of one of America's beloved wordsmiths, Theodor "Ted" Seuss Geisel − or "Dr. Seuss" - who was born on March 2.

More than 40 BAMSL members and staff volunteered to read to approximately 2,000 preschoolers, kindergartners and first graders in more than 30 schools throughout the St. Louis City Public School District. 

This year, the BAMSL Read Across America Committee, which is part of BAMSL's Young Lawyers Division (YLD) also provided a volunteer/teacher-led craft activity in which each child had the opportunity to make Dr. Seuss hats out of Red Solo cups and strips of white paper. Additionally, after volunteers read from a Dr. Seuss book, each classroom received that copy of the book for future use.

Special thanks goes to local organization Bring Me a Book St. Louis, which partnered with BAMSL this year to provide a book for each child to take home. Bring Me a Book St. Louis (www.bringmeabookstl.org) generously donated 1,200 books to BAMSL for distribution to each child in every classroom. Bring Me a Book St. Louis Executive Director Michael Shipley also volunteered to read to students and brought the organization’s Book Bus Bookmobile to share with the students.

BAMSL Membership and YLD Assistant Leesi Kogbara organized this year’s event, including coordinating the schools and volunteers, gathering and distributing materials to the volunteers and seeking donations to pay for the Dr. Seuss books.

With more than 6,500 members in the St. Louis region, including attorneys, judges, paralegals and law firm administrators, The Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis (BAMSL) is the oldest and most respected voluntary bar association in the area. Please visit BAMSL’s newly designed Web site at www.bamsl.org.

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To view photos, please visit www.bamsl.org/photos.

For more information and interview opportunities, please contact Susan Sagarra, BAMSL Assistant Executive Director, Membership and Marketing, at ssagarra@bamsl.org or (314) 421-4134.