Dallas, Texas - FC Dallas General Manager Michael Hitchcock announced today that the club will kickoff its 2006 "Get a Kick Out of Reading" campaign this Friday morning at Central Elementary School in Lewisville. This will be the first of five stops in the North Dallas region in the month of January for this annual program which encourages children to read while also stressing the importance of literacy as a key to academic growth.
This year Verizon Yellow Pages has teamed up with FC Dallas to sponsor this tremendous outreach initiative that teaches young students the joys of reading while also improving their reading skills and rewarding them for their successful completion of certain preset reading assignments.
"We are thrilled to have FC Dallas as our partner to introduce this exciting reading program," Verizon Yellow Pages spokesman Debbie Conklin said. "Reading is a critical skill and a key factor in fostering success in school. Verizon is committed to enriching lives through reading programs such as this."
"It has always been one of the primary goals of the FC Dallas organization to have our players stand out as positive role models in the communities in which they live and work," Hitchcock added. "There is no greater cause than the education of children and we are pleased to be able to lend our name and time to initiatives such as this one."
The program will kick off this Friday at 8:15 a.m. at Central Elementary School in Lewisville where FC Dallas goalkeeper Jeff Cassar will address more than 1,000 elementary school children. By the end of January, this program, which will also stop in Frisco, McKinney, Plano and Richardson, will have reached out to more than 5,000 children and taught them about the positive impact of reading.
In addition to Cassar, other FC Dallas players who will be participating with this program are Drew Moor, Richard Mulrooney, Bobby Rhine and David Wagenfuhr. The complete schedule for the "Get a Kick out of Reading" program can be found below.
Friday, January 6 Central Elementary in Lewisville 8:15AM
Thursday, January 12 McCall Elementary in Plano 1:30PM
Friday, January 13 Webb Elementary in McKinney 2:00PM
Monday, January 23 Borchardt Elementary in Frisco 8:00AM
Friday, January 27 Northrich Elementary in Richardson 9:00AM
FC Dallas 2006 season tickets are on sale now. There are a wide range of seating options available, starting at just $180 per ticket for a full season plan which includes all 16 FC Dallas regular season home games, as well as four bonus games. There are also significant discounts available on FCD's ten and five-game ticket plans. Call 1-888-FCD-GOAL or visit www.fcdallas.net to reserve your spot at Pizza Hut Park for the exciting 2006 FC Dallas season.
FC Dallas, a charter member club of Major League Soccer, began play at Pizza Hut Park, a new 20,000 seat soccer specific stadium, on August 6, 2005. The 145-acre facility is located at the intersection of Main Street and Dallas North Tollway in Frisco. Pizza Hut Park will accommodate Major League Soccer matches, major concerts, international soccer matches and High School football. Adjacent to the stadium are 17 regulation-sized, tournament-grade soccer fields which will be utilized on a year-round basis. On November 13, 2005 Pizza Hut Park hosted Major League Soccer's championship match, MLS Cup 2005 live on ABC Sports. The event saw a record crowd of more than 21,000 fans in attendance and was broadcast in more than 130 countries worldwide. For more information, log on to www.fcdallas.net.
