Pizza Hut® Taps BOOK IT!® Literacy Program Alumni For Volunteerism Opportunity In Celebration Of National Reading Month

BOOK IT! Program calling on alums to read 20 minutes to kids during National Reading Month; Company Still Accepting Entries for $30K College Plan for Students Currently Enrolled in BOOK IT!

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Pizza Hut

Mar 02, 2015, 10:00 ET

PLANO, Texas, March 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- In recognition of National Reading Month, Pizza Hut is encouraging BOOK IT! alums to spread their love of reading to children in their lives, and show it on social media by posting photos with the hashtag #BOOKITkid by March 6 for the chance to win a free Personal Pan Pizza and a retro BOOK IT! t-shirt. Participants are encouraged to read for 20 minutes to kids in their lives -- be it at home, at a school or by volunteering in the community -- to share their love of reading (official rules can be found here).

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Pizza Hut kicked off a 30th birthday celebration for the Pizza Hut BOOK IT! Program in October, 2014, by introducing an official alumni program, dishing out free Personal Pan Pizza to all alums who signed up, creating a $30,000 College Plan for current participants and releasing its first reading App (available in the App Store). March marks the last month for students to earn a BOOK IT! certificate this year and to enter for a chance to win the $30,000 College Plan.

"The BOOK IT! 30^th anniversary celebration has received passionate, positive responses from the program's alumni," said Shelley Morehead, BOOK IT! Program Manager. "During National Reading Month, Pizza Hut is encouraging alumni to become even more active in their support for the program by sharing the love of reading with children in their lives."

To register as an alum of the BOOK IT! Program, supporters can visit www.bookitprogram.com/alumni. More than 440,000 people signed up as Alumni when the birthday celebration kicked off late last year.

BOOK IT! is the longest-running corporate-supported reading program in the country, and has engaged educators for more than three decades, helping 60 million children read for more than 54 billion minutes. The goal of the program – available for children from kindergarten through sixth grade – is to foster a love of reading. Students who meet monthly reading goals are given a Reading Award Certificate that can be redeemed at participating Pizza Hut locations for a Passport to Reading Award and a one-topping Personal Pan Pizza.

For a chance to win the $30,000 College Plan, students must redeem a monthly Reading Award Certificate good for a free Personal Pan Pizza, a Passport to Reading Award and a sticker for each monthly visit. Children with all six official Pizza Hut BOOK IT! Program stickers may submit their passport by May 1 for a chance to win the $30K College Plan. More information is available at www.bookitprogram.com/fairytalegiveaway/.

About BOOK IT!
In 1984, Pizza Hut established the BOOK IT! National Reading Development Program to motivate children to read more and help them develop a lifelong love of reading. BOOK IT! is a six-month program for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. For more information, visit www.bookitprogram.com or keep up with BOOK IT! via its social media outlets @BOOKITprogram or Facebook.com/bookitprogram.

About Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM), delivers more pizza, pasta and wings than any other restaurant in the world. The company began 57 years ago in Wichita, Kansas, when two brothers borrowed $600 from their mom to start a pizzeria. What started out small has become the biggest pizza company in the world and today operates more than 15,600 restaurants in more than 90 countries serving innovative pizzas, traditional favorites like the signature Pan Pizza, and much more. Pizza Hut also is the proprietor of the BOOK IT!® Program, which is a long-standing children's literacy program used in more than 630,000 classrooms nationwide. For more information, visit www.pizzahut.com. Follow Pizza Hut on Facebook (www.facebook.com/PizzaHut) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/pizzahut).