When Kansas City Chiefs tight end Sean Ryan sat down to read to a group of young children he felt right at home. He has a young daughter of his own and reading to her is just as routine as catching footballs in practice. As the official spokesperson of Hooked on Books, Ryan encouraged Kansas Citians to donate new or gently used books for children from 0-14 years of age at various locations in the metro area.

Ryan teamed with The Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri to kick off the Hooked on Books campaign. He read the book “Let’s Go Chiefs!,” to youth from Operation Breakthrough at the Kansas City Public Library. The children loved Ryan’s reading and even helped by chanting the tag-line, “Let’s Go Chiefs!” which appears at the end of every page. With a mother that was a teacher for 30 years and a father that read over 250 books last year, Ryan understands the importance of reading.

“Reading is great because you can go out of the norm. Wherever you are you can start reading a book and come into a different land and a different world. You can get into it very much.”

It was hard to tell who had more fun, the kids or Ryan. Afterward Ryan commented on his experience with the young crowd, “I love reading to my daughter and obviously these kids enjoy reading. And some of my daughter’s favorite books were their favorites so this was fun.” Ryan also signed a copy of the book “Let’s Go Chiefs!” for each of the children in attendance. It was obvious that everyone involved had a great time and this was a great way to kickoff the Hooked on Books campaign.

The Hooked on Books campaign is entering is 12th year and runs from September 29 – October 31 of 2009. Hooked on Books gathers books for Kansas City-area children who might not otherwise have access to age-appropriate reading materials at home. In all, over 800,000 books have been collected and distributed by the Hooked on Books initiative.

This marked Ryan’s initial campaign as the spokesperson for the collection. However, he represents the fourth member of the Red and Gold to serve in that capacity, a partnership that is now entering its seventh year.

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