The Herald-Dispatch


Annual event focuses on readying kids for school 
By Crystal Quarles


 
HUNTINGTON -- Kids and parents scrambled into the Marshall University Student Center 
for hours on Saturday to attend the seventh annual Super Kids, Super Families, Super Saturday 
event.

The United Way "Success by 6" event focuses on improving school readiness by raising 
awareness of the importance of early childhood development. The effort is designed to ensure
that all children in the River Cities will be ready physically, mentally, developmentally, 
emotionally and socially to begin kindergarten.
  
Children of all ages attended the Saturday event that allowed them to get up close and personal 
with Marshall football players, play with Legos, get their faces painted and collect fun learning 
activities and supplies. They also got helpful tips on how to wash their hands correctly, and 
parents received information on where their children should be at each learning stage and take 
a positive role in that development.

For nine-year-old John Burdette meeting the Marshall players was the big draw.

His mother, Lena Burdette, said she has taken her son to every Super Saturday event she has
 known about.

"I'm a big United Way supporter," she said. "I like the information. He likes the fun."

The children worked their way around the room with maze-designed sheets of paper that 
showed a dotted line leading to the various booths. The children stopped at each booth to get a 
signature from the booth holder. The children turned in their sheets at the end of their rounds to 
be included in a drawing to win an autographed basketball by O.J. Mayo and Patrick Patterson.


Deborah Somuano, community initiatives coordinator for United Way River Cities, said Success
by 6 is the largest national campaign on early childhood initiatives. She said they are pushing 
nutrition, health and positive images.
 
On http://www.herald-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007702110362