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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 6, 2013

Ivy Tech volunteers read banned books for Read Across America Day

��������’s Bloomington campus is celebrating its third annual Read Across America Day on Thursday, March 7 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. with open microphone readings of banned and challenged books. The event will take place at Ivy Tech-Bloomington in the Hoosier Times Student Commons in the Connie and Steve Ferguson Academic Building at 200 Daniels Way. The event is hosted by students in Ivy Tech – Bloomington’s American Literature After 1865 service-learning class and the Creative Writing Club.

Read Across America Day occurs every year on or around the birthday of Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, and encourages every adult to read to a child in celebration of reading.

Ivy Tech – Bloomington is going to use this day to celebrate the freedom to read by focusing on reading banned and challenged books – starting with Dr. Seuss’s own The Lorax. In addition to the reading event, students are running a book drive from March 1 through March 22 to collect paperback books for Boxcar Books and the Midwest Pages to Prisoners project. Bins will be located throughout Ivy Tech’s main campus. Those who donate books or volunteer to read at the Read Across America Day event on Thursday, March 7 will receive an “I Read Banned Books” button or free brownies/chocolate truffles supplied by Chef Jeff Tabor’s Ivy Tech HOSP 105 students.

Participants in the reading on March 7 can select their own banned or challenged book to read, but plenty of books will be available to choose from on site, selected by Ivy Tech English students. Contact Professor Elizabeth Starr at estarr@ivytech.edu to sign up to read.

Students are blogging about banned and challenged books on their class blog—titled “Banned” Together—at . The blog is a service learning project in partnership with the Ivy Tech – Bloomington Library. The public, students, and staff are invited to read and comment on student blog entries. Students will select and recognize the best outside comment on their blog at the end of the semester.

To sign up in advance for a reading time, or for more information, contact Elizabeth Starr at estarr@ivytech.edu or 330-6048.

About ��������

�������� () is the state’s largest public postsecondary institution and the nation’s largest singly accredited statewide community college system serving nearly 200,000 students annually. Ivy Tech has campuses throughout Indiana. It serves as the state’s engine of workforce development, offering affordable degree programs and training that are aligned with the needs of its community along with courses and programs that transfer to other colleges and universities in Indiana. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association.

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