It's not every day a NASCAR racer pulls into an elementary school, but Tablo TV car driver Ryan Ellis rolled in to talk to students about something just as powerful as racing: Reading.
Ellis is part of the Scripps Howard Fund's national "If you Give a Child a Book" campaign, which focuses on getting books into kids' hands to help them discover a love for reading early on.
"If you want to be a race car driver, or a teacher or an astronaut — whatever you want to do in life, you have to have that good foundation. And it starts with page one," Ellis said.
"It puts a lot of knowledge in your head and you learn new things that probably you've never seen or heard of before," one student said.
"Electronics make my head hurt after a while, and real books — I think the feeling of having a book in my hand is comforting," said another.
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Ellis feels it also gives parents and kids a time to connect.
"Just to remind them that we're there for them and we're willing to slow down and understand who they are as humans," he said.
Ellis told students that reading helped fuel his own journey – a reminder that the road to big dreams doesn't always start with an engine. Sometimes it starts with the book.
"Growing up, I remember Harry Potter books come out and I would try to tear through it in a day," Ellis said.
Along with receiving free books, students entered a contest to design a book-inspired helmet, with the winning design becoming a real NASCAR helmet worn by Ellis in Atlanta.
Educators hope tying literacy to something as exciting as NASCAR will help students see reading in a whole new light.
"If you give a child a book, you open up their life to endless potential," Ellis said.
Tablo TV is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company.
