Super Bowl Champion and Children’s Author, Malcom Mitchell

The Albany Junior League partners with Malcom Mitchell's Share the Magic Foundation

ALBANY, GA- Former University of Georgia football player and Super Bowl LI Champion, Malcom Mitchell returns to South Georgia, but with a new platform.

The Albany Junior League Provisional Class hosted a ‘Read Bowl’ in partnership with children’s book author, Malcom Mitchell’s Share the Magic Foundation,  encouraging students to read.

“Through my experienced I’ve learned that reading is one of the most self-empowering tools a person could possess. It could help them live out their dreams, reach their full potential, be fully functional citizens in society,” said Mitchell.

Before his winning a Super Bowl and becoming an author, Mitchell was a student who like many students, struggled with reading.

“I think growing up as a striving or struggling reader gave me first hand experience on some of those challenges. I felt some words were too big, some sentences were too long and some books had way too many pages. I was that student in class pretending to be asleep because they are afraid to be called on in class to read. So taking that perspective and also having my perspective as an athlete, just taking those two world, the importance reading and the fun of athletics and competition and merging those together is what we hope to accomplish with these programs,” said Mitchell.

Amidst bringing his book, “The Magician’s Hat” to life with a real magician, Mitchell was able to keep the ideals of competition alive.

“In Dougherty County School System, our top priority is early literacy. So, being with Malcom and his read with Malcom foundation, we awarded four elementary schools over the last two days for the top total minutes read, top average minutes, for his Read Bowl and Read Marathon,” said DCSS early literacy specialist, Whitney Webb.

The access to tablets, smartphones and social media have caused literacy and reading to decline drastically in young students. However, this was not the case for Sherwood Acres Elementary who had the highest total reading minutes throughout the Dougherty County School System.

“Literacy is a weakness throughout the world and to have students excited to read and enjoy to read is very positive,” said Syvette Simmons, SAES principal.

Distractions weren’t an issue with with Robert Harvey Elementary School, who claimed the highest reading minute average, acquired an average of 26,000 minutes…

“It’s very rewarding to have received this reward because we worked hard. Our kids, they have a lot of confidence in themselves, which was not the case a couple of years ago. But, thanks to a strong team of teachers and staff, we are all encouraging our kids each and every day,” said Karen Riggins, RHES Principle.

Riggins says having Malcom visit students means much more to them than the reading itself.

“What’s beneficial is for our kids across the district to see someone that looks like themselves. We have a lot of athletes in our building, So it encourages me to get them to see that you to can be just like Malcom,” said Riggins.

And, for Malcom, serving kids who share his home means more, too.

“I think the primary objective is to shift the cultural narrative surround literacy so it becomes more embraced by communities… you know I grew up in South Georgia so being able to do it here means a lot to me,” said Malcom.

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