Patrick Mahomes featured at Lead to Read’s massive T-Mobile literacy rally

Patrick Mahomes on stage alongside event emcee Christian Walker // Photo by Samantha Russell

Thursday April 2: the T-Mobile Center hosts the fourth annual Lead to Read KC Reading Rally with special guest Patrick Mahomes. The event provides incentive for students participating in Lead to Read mentorship and Read for 15 programs.

A perfect quarter of an hour resides in the number stitched on Mahomes’ jersey. The Read for 15 program, part of 15 and the Mahomies Foundation, uses that number to encourage kids to read for fifteen minutes a day. 15 and the Mahomies exists to improve the lives of children. For the last four years, their Read for 15 program has partnered with Lead to Read to advance youth literacy.

Over 3000 schoolchildren from 33 schools across the metro descended into the T-Mobile Center for the culminating event of their year-long programs.

A drum line kicks as students fill the seats. KC Wolf works the crowd as palpable energy infuses the stadium with excited shrieks reaching high frequencies. Ahead of Mahomes’ appearance, kids break it down to comestible pop hits like “Espresso” and “Hot to Go” as cheerleaders sashay pom poms.

Lead to Read pairs one-on-one reading volunteers with students to read for half an hour over a volunteer’s lunch break. Students get to select and keep a book they want to read. Funding provided by 15 and the Mahomies allows Lead to Read to provide books of interest to students. These range from sports books to graphic novels—books that aren’t in a school’s curriculum, but foster a necessary sense of fun associated with reading.

Rhea M. LeGrande and KC Wolf // Photo by Samantha Russell

Rhea M. LeGrande, Executive Director of Lead to Read, speaks to the importance of the program and Reading Rally event, “Every single reading mentor matters. Every time an adult chooses to pour into a child, that matters. And, when someone has the visibility and star power like Patrick Mahomes, tells a child face to face, ‘reading matters, and you matter, and you reading matters to me’—that plants this seed in a kiddo that just can’t be replicated.”

Literacy rates across the KC Metro are an area of concern for educators over the last few years. Missouri state data shows that less than a quarter of third-graders are reading at grade level. Third grade is a crucial checkpoint for literacy, as up until third grade, primary emphasis is placed on learning to read. But beyond this grade level, students are expected to gain knowledge from reading. Students who are not proficient in reading by third grade will struggle to comprehend learning material, impacting life outcomes beyond high school. Programs like Lead to Read and Read for 15 are essential boosts to the literacy landscape for young students.

LeGrande says of the book selection, “It builds reading stamina, reading confidence, and reading joy—because the kids get to pick what book they’re reading. It’s primarily done during the school day, but they’re all techniques that we know as educators work to build kids’ independent reading skills.”

40,000 books are given out across the year and two thousand reading volunteers participate weekly.

Patrick Mahomes enters, with children spinning their white, newly-obtained, Garmin-sponsored t-shirts in the air like rally towels as Tech N9ne’s “KCMO Anthem” plays.

For fans of the Chiefs, I’m here to report the three-time Super Bowl MVP walked exceedingly well to the stage. Mahomes’ left knee, which underwent ACL surgery after major injury December 14 against the Los Angeles Chargers, looks stronger than ever.

As if part of a pre-game huddle, he gave a pep talk to the enthusiastic crowd, “Let’s have a great day today and have some fun!” continuing, “I’m here today because reading is important… I just wanna show y’all, if you read for fifteen minutes, you can become smarter in everything you do in life—including playing quarterback, or whatever your dreams are.”

Mahomes and over 3000 schoolchildren at T-Mobile Center // Photo by Samantha Russell

Mahomes read aloud from local author C.L. Fails’ book Ella and the One Great Race alongside the author herself and event emcee, Crossroads Charter School teacher Christian Walker. The book shows different ethnicities of people running in a long run race with Ella’s positive mindset as she faces down the 5k. Mahomes asked the students if any of them are fast runners. He confides with a laugh, “I’m not very fast.”

Against the defensive line of illiteracy, Mahomes reminds students about the habits of persistence and practice: “No matter what you’re doing, you have to go out there and read every single day to be successful. Reading takes practice. Just like everything in life—just like me practicing on the football field—every time you read, you’re going to get better and better.”

Rhea M. LeGrande says of his live appearance, “Kids see superstars as someone or something far away—almost magical. Patrick coming in person, saying, ‘I read daily to increase my sports ability, I read daily because I’m curious about the world, I read to my own kids,’—that associates reading less as just something that has to be done in school and more as something that is important for all of us to do to unlock all of our potential.”