To kick off 2024 and welcome students back to school from winter break, Rams Cheerleaders and mascot Rampage visited Aspire Titan Academy, Will Rogers Learning Community and Stoner Avenue Elementary School to read the team's children's book, Ride with Rampage. Among the three schools, the book was read to more than 600 first through third graders as part of the Rams Readers literacy program. Each student also received their own copy of the book and a Rams bookmark to take home.
"It's great to have an organization that comes out and shares a love of reading with our students," said Stoner Avenue Elementary principal Mario Garcia-Haro.
Ride with Rampage is a key component of the Rams Readers program, which encourages students to explore the excitement that reading can provide while helping improve literacy rates among students throughout Los Angeles.
The students brought lots of energy into the team's first Rams Readers school visits of the new year. Allison Holdorff Polhill, senior advisor and district director for Los Angeles Unified School District, said, "[The students] were lit up by education and the teachers were thrilled that the Rams are partnering with the district to create these types of situations where kids can love learning."
Garcia-Haro added how the reading session "allowed the students to see that books can take us anywhere." The book centers around mascot Rampage, driving a Rams-branded double decker bus around Southern California, picking up young Rams fans and Rams Cheerleaders at each stop along a scenic route to the team's home at SoFi Stadium.
Discussing the impact of the book, Holdorff Polhill added, "A book that covers the cultural icons within LA is a way to create love of learning."
Rams Cheerleader Jose F. joined one of the stops to read to the students. "I think the impact of the book really brings out the excitement about reading and it brings out different types of history and culture around LA. It also gains the kids excitement when they get to read it."
The Rams kicked off the Rams Readers literacy program and released Ride with Rampage on March 2, 2022, in celebration of Read Across America Day. Since launching the program in 2022, the Rams have visited more than 40 schools and distributed over 7,000 copies of Ride with Rampage to first through third grade students in schools across Southern California. Copies of Ride with Rampage can be purchased at www.ramsfanshop.com, Amazon, and in select Barnes & Noble locations across Los Angeles. All proceeds from retail purchases will benefit the Los Angeles Rams Foundation.
For more information about the Rams' community outreach efforts, visit www.therams.com/community.
