HOBBS, New Mexico – The JF Maddox Foundation, United Way of Lea County and the Hobbs Municipal Schools welcome former New England Patriots football player and Executive Director of Share the Magic Foundation, Malcolm Mitchell as the featured speaker at Reading Under the Lights event on Saturday, April 29th at Watson Memorial Stadium on the Hobbs High School campus.
Reading Under the Lights is a free event geared toward school-aged children encouraging them to foster a love of reading. The event will take place from 5:00-8:00 p.m. and include individual reading stations featuring the Hobbs Police Department, Hobbs Fire Department, Lea County Sheriffs, New Mexico Junior College Basketball Team, and a variety of community leaders. Mitchell is expected to speak at 6:00 p.m. and will sign books following the speaking program. Mitchell’s books will be given away for FREE to the first 1,500 attendees of the event.
“We are excited to welcome Malcolm to Hobbs for our first-ever Reading Under the Lights event,” said Mayra Lovas, Vice President – Grants, at the JF Maddox Foundation. “We hope his story will inspire Lea County students to discover or reinvigorate a love of reading that can take them to unimaginable places.”
“Hobbs Schools is thrilled to be engaged in partnership across our community with literacy being the focus,” Gene Strickland, Superintendent, Hobbs Municipal Schools said. “We all have a responsibility to grow our youngest to be the strongest and the most successful generation; ALL success in life is rooted in reading!”
“Malcolm’s passion for reading will help Lea County students re-engage in reading which is so important in helping them be the best they can be,” Becca Titus, President and Chief Executive Officer, United Way of Lea County said. “We are so grateful for all of the support for this event and can’t wait to see everyone there.”
After graduating from the University of Georgia with a degree in Communications in 2015, Malcolm was drafted by the New England Patriots, becoming a Super Bowl Champion in February 2017. In 2015, Malcolm authored and published a children’s book, “The Magician’s Hat” and created a youth literacy initiative called Read with Malcolm. In 2016, he went on to establish a 501c3 organization, Share the Magic Foundation with a sole purpose: to transform children’s lives through literacy. Since its founding, the Share the Magic Foundation has placed books in the hands of more than 65,000 young readers and provided Read with Malcolm Literacy programming to over 300,000 students.
In 2016, Mitchell received the Children’s Author of the Year by the Georgia Writers Association, and in 2017, he signed a three-book contract with Scholastic Publishing Company. This year, Mitchell once again received the Children’s Author of the Year by the Georgia Writers Association for his second book, My Very Favorite Book in the Whole Wide World.
Among Mitchell’s numerous awards and accomplishments both on and off the field, he considers discovering a love of reading one of his greatest achievements.
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