Summer is time for family, beach days and Reading with the Rays! This program is one of our favorite parts of our partnership with the Tampa Bay Rays because it combines our love for helping local children with our love for the Rays (and DJ Kitty, of course).

How It Works

During the summer, kids track their hours of reading to win prizes with the goal of 24 total hours of reading. They track their progress with a game card from their local library to round the bases and collect Rays prizes.

Two tickets to a Rays game is the grand prize for students who read 24 hours during the program.

Find a participating library near you in the following counties:

• Charlotte County
• Citrus County
• Hernando County
• Hillsborough County
• Manatee County
• Pasco County
• Pinellas County
• Polk County
• Sarasota County

Why Suncoast Loves Reading with the Rays

Kids who read during the summer can keep their skills sharp for when the school year starts again. During our years of sponsoring Reading with the Rays, we have been blown away by the incredible results from our local students.

In 2017, there were more than 40,000 participants from nine of the counties we serve. It totaled more than 400,000 hours of reading over last summer!

We are so proud of all of our young readers and can’t wait to see how many hours they read this summer! For more information about Reading with the Rays, please head to raysbaseball.com/reading.

This article originally appeared in June 2017 and has been updated to reflect additional information.