Arizona Coyotes Reading Program Wraps Up Another Successful Schoolyear

The end of this story is no cliffhanger -- the Arizona Coyotes' reading program is a hit with local students.

The initiative, in which 100 Arizona grade 2-4 classrooms signed up for this year, has had a lasting impact with both students and teachers. Classes from Queen Creek all the way to Lake Havasu City enrolled in the program this past school year, which encourages and rewards students for cracking the books through various giveaways, pizza parties, appearances from the Coyotes' mascot, Howler, and even player visits.

This past season, Connor Mackey, Josh Brown, Travis Boyd, Connor Ingram, Liam O'Brien, Troy Stecher, Barrett Hayton and Jack McBain all visited classrooms that participated in the program, which directly aligns with one of the Arizona Coyotes Foundation's key pillars: Education and closing the education gap.

"This is a very big program because if your kids are not reading by fourth grade, that dictates their academic success. If you can't understand words at that age, subjects get harder, and harder, and harder," said Nadia Rivera, the Arizona Coyotes' Chief Impact Officer and Executive Director of Foundation and Community Impact. "This isn't just about literacy; this is about their long-term success in school and beyond."

Sherri Skummer, who has taught third grade at Desert Trails Elementary School for 22 years, said the program energizes and excites her students, who are at a critical age in their development.

Her class had students read as many as three million words throughout the course of the year.

"This is the year we take it from just learning how to read to reading comprehension," Skummer said. "The first month before the program starts, here and there, they're not really filling out their logs, they're not really reading, they're not really finding the genre they love. Then the Coyotes program started, I got a box full of prizes, I came and made a big deal about starting it, and they were on fire."

Coyotes Senior Coordinator of Community Outreach, Nick Staloch, organized and worked with all of the respective classrooms that leveraged the program throughout the year. He said they made a few tweaks to the program, such as expanding the locations where participating teachers pick up their materials, as well as encouraging teachers to nominate a "student of the month," who then earns perks for the entire class, such as a pizza party or a visit from Howler.

"Instead of having teachers carry the burden of recording minutes, we took a more holistic approach," Staloch said. "We had teachers nominate their top student of the month, not just for their reading skills, but also for being good students and leaders in the classroom. It's something where the teachers don't have to track as much, they can submit the nomination, and the program can take on whatever form works best for their classroom."

Rivera said the program has been a "cornerstone" of the team's community outreach efforts, and she hopes to grow it even further in the coming years to have an even greater impact, especially in diverse and underserved communities throughout the state.

One of the key issues in those communities continues to be literacy rates, and given the success of the Coyotes' program, she hopes it can continue to grow and continue its positive impact.

"Schools where there's underserved and underrepresented youth that really need to have that resource," Rivera said. "That's going to be our motivation and our focus moving forward -- working with those organizations, growing, and taking this program into Title I schools and into communities of color is critically important.

"We want to show them it's not just your teacher that cares about you - the Coyotes care about you. We're investing in you."

Skummer said the program's impact is immeasureable, and she's grateful to the team and its foundation for continuing its literacy efforts across the state.

"That's why they work so hard, and that's why we made it such a special time," she said. "That's why every year we keep doing it, and I'd just like to thank the Coyotes for doing this."