Danville Public Schools and the Ruby B. Archie Public Library held a kickoff event on Thursday for the Ruby B. Archie Passport to Reading Challenge. The challenge is for students and members of the community to read one million books by the end of this year.

Danville School Board Chairman, Ty’Quan Graves, spoke at the event and said the goal of the challenge is to increase the culture of reading for students.

“We want the culture of reading to follow our students home and into our community,” said Graves, “we want chatter around books out in the community and talks about good reads at the dinner table.”

DPS is participating in Read Across America Week, a celebration to promote literacy and encourage a love of reading. Guest readers from the district and community were in every elementary and preschool classroom throughout the day on Thursday to read to students.