#48- Jimmie Johnson will make a special trip to Clara Love Elementary School in Justin on Friday, April 13, to crown the 2011-2012 champions for Texas Motor Speedway’s Speeding To Read pilot educational program. Speeding To Read LogoClara Love Elementary’s 630 K-5 student body have been racing to the finish line with more than 57,000 books read school wide. The school’s classrooms, split into two divisions with kindergarten through second grade and third through fifth grade, have been competing against each other to read the most books and earn the title of Speeding To Read champions.(TMS)(4-13-2012)
UPDATE: #48-Jimmie Johnson., the five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, paid a special visit Friday to Clara Love Elementary School in neighboring Justin to crown the inaugural champions of Texas Motor Speedway’s ‘Speeding To Read’ educational program. Before an enthusiastic full-school assembly of nearly 625 students, faculty and visiting parents, Johnson arrived to a thunderous, continuous chant of J-I-M-M-I-E J-O-H-N-S-O-N in the auditorium to present the winning classrooms of the ‘Speeding To Read’ program with their championship trophies. Johnson presented the Kindergarten-Second Grade Division championship trophy to Ms. Abrams ‘ first-grade class, which read 10,457 books. He then presented the Third-Fifth Grade Division championship trophy to Ms. Baker’s fifth-grade class, which read 913 books that were longer and more in-depth than the younger division. The 29 classrooms read a combined 80,083 books and more than 80% of the student body met or exceeded their reading goals for the year. Clara Love Elementary Principal Julie Nerby reciprocated on behalf of the school and made Johnson an honorary ‘Lil ‘ Texan’ and presented him with a plaque and school t-shirt. Following the assembly, Johnson visited with the winning students that also were presented with champions t-shirts and four tickets each to Saturday night’s Samsung Mobile 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race to watch Johnson and his fellow competitors. He signed each one of their race programs as a memento, posed for photos with the championship classrooms and conducted another Q&A; with the winning students. ‘Speeding To Read’ is an incentive-based, NASCAR-themed reading program created by Texas Motor Speedway to encourage students to read more frequently during the school year. In addition to taking in Saturday’s Samsung Mobile 500, the winning classrooms also will get to visit with Scott Speed of #95 Leavine Family Racing prior to the race.(TMS)(4-14-2012)
