Levar Burton Is On a Quest to Bring Back Reading Rainbow to Every Family
May 28, 2014
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One of the joys of childhood for my children was Reading Rainbow and now Levar Burton is on a quest to bring back Reading Rainbow to every family.
One of many highlights of the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration last April came during breakfast Saturday morning when we were suddenly surprised as the Reading Rainbow Theme came alive throughout the room. And then to our amazement, as we all sang along to this melody that was such an important part of all of our lives, we looked up to see LeVar Burton himself appeared before us. I don’t think any rock star would have had more squeals of delight than those that greeted Mr. Burton as he stood before us.
For one brief moment time stood still and each one of us was reminded of the joy and love that “Reading Rainbow brought into each of our lives, and that of our children, and even our grandchildren. Even though “Reading Rainbow” left the airways in 2006, thanks to the magic of the Internet, YouTube and videos, it’s ability to instill and foster a pure and deep love of reading still lives on. Two years ago, Burton came out with a Reading Rainbow App 
for the iPad in the hopes of connecting with today’s youth on their technological level. But his quest to bring back the joy and art of storytelling did not stop there as he was determined to bring an unlimited library of books to a much wider audience. Not every child has a tablet and more schools than not do not have access to today’s technology. So just how does the driving force behind Reading Rainbow intend to bring back the power of reading to all families? Mr. Burton is on a quest develop a web-enabled Reading Rainbow for at-home use, create a classroom version along with lesson plans and teacher-friendly tools, and subsidize the cost so any school can use Reading Rainbow anywhere for free.
Burton has set out to raise a million dollars, and has offered up plenty of prizes for donations that run the gamut from a LeVar himself recording your voicemail, to hanging out with you via Skype to sending you an autograph. But what matters most is this will help more kids learn how to read. And although a million dollars sure sounds like a lot, in this day and age where actors are asking for money for movies, regular folk are seeking funding to be the next great reality television stars, and still others are asking the public through Kickstarter to fund their dream vacation, finally without a doubt I can say that this is indeed a Kickstarter cause that I can get behind and so should every family in America. Read more about LeVar Burton’s Kickstarter campaign and then join in by ensuring that generations to come will come to know what we already know “ Take a look, it’s in a book, Reading Rainbow. I can be anything, take a look, it’s in a book, Reading Rainbow.”
To read more about LeVar Burton’s work with reading and Disney, check out Give A Book, Get A Book campaign.
