11 Mar Miners Read Across America Week
Augusta, NJ – Northwestern New Jersey’s professional baseball team, the Sussex County Miners, are supporting schools during Read Across America Week and throughout the month of March by providing players and game day staff to talk about the importance of reading, share a book with the students, play some games with Herbie the mascot, and remind young learners about the importance and benefits of developing good, routine reading habits.
Pitchers Jose Ledesma, Jr. and Ronnie Voacolo, catcher Kyle Richards and others from Skylands Stadium crisscrossed Sussex, Morris, Passaic, and Warren Counties last week as they visited twenty-five schools, engaging everyone from preschoolers to eighth graders. Younger students enjoyed Derek Jeter Presents A Night at the Stadium, while middle and upper-grades enjoyed a nonfiction picture called Miracle Mud, which tells of the origins about the special substance harvested only from New Jersey and is applied to every baseball used in the Major and Minor Leagues for over eighty-five years.
The Sussex County Miners Reading Club is an incentive open to all students in the area, and the team has partnered with over forty schools. When students read an average of 100 minutes per week for six weeks, they are rewarded with two free tickets to a Miners game. Those Reading Club games will serve as a fun summer reunion for students. Each school in the program will have a designated game mid-season where the top reader and a faculty member from each building will throw out the ceremonial First Pitch, highlights from their school year will be displayed on the stadium’s video board, and some students, as well as teachers, will participate in fun games and contests held between innings.
It’s not too late to join. Please reach out to the Miners’ Coordinator of Community Engagement, Scott Davies, to learn how you can still join the Club! He can be reached at scott@scminers.com.
Separate from the Reading Club, the team also offers Educational School Day games on May 15 and 16. The first pitch is at 11:00 a.m. and schools will return with plenty of time to prepare for dismissal and afternoon bus runs. From pregame through the last batter, each of these games will be filled with math, language arts, science and other content connected to the New Jersey Student Learning Standards from Kindergarten through Eighth Grade. For more information about attending one of our two Educational School Day games, contact groupsales@scminers.com.
The Sussex County Miners are one of sixteen teams to play in the Frontier League, the oldest continually running independent league in the United States and a Major League Baseball Partner League. The Miners play a 96-game schedule from May to early September, and their 46 home games are played at Skylands Stadium in Augusta.