There are many reasons why reading to kids is a good thing.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, reading daily to young children can help with language acquisition, literacy skills and, ultimately, lead to better performance in school.

Barbara Craig summed it up in a different way when reading to a group of first-graders at Ellis Elementary in Niles: If you read, you can be rich.

“People who can read make more money than people who can’t read,” the dean of Lake Michigan College Bertrand Township Campus told the student.

Craig was one of approximately 150 people who volunteered to read to pre-kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms in Berrien and Cass counties through the United Way of Southwest Michigan’s annual Reading Day of Action.

Doug Ferral, of United Way, said 42 different schools signed up and volunteers read at nearly 300 classrooms.

“United Way wants all our kids to be successful and something as simple as getting together to read helps bring awareness to the importance of reading,” he said. “Study after study shows learning to read well at a young age is very important for success later in life.”

While Craig was busy reading to first graders in Mrs. Zimmerman’s classroom, Edwardsburg’s Jill Thompson was reading “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” to first-graders in Mrs. Hamm’s room.

Thompson said she enjoyed reading to the kids and that she’s had a lot of practice as she teaches preschool three days a week.

“I have a big love of reading and I love passing it on,” she said.