Celebrate Literacy Week, Florida! Focuses on Healthy Habits

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Jan. 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of the Florida Department of Education's 6th annual Celebrate Literacy Week, volunteers and teachers from around the state will introduce the comic book "Iron Man and Habit Heroes" to Florida students.

Celebrate Literacy Week, Florida! is an annual event during which students, teachers, administrators, parents and volunteers celebrate the tremendous success of Florida's students over the past decade. With this year's theme, "Reading Accelerates Success," students are encouraged to read every day while making a connection between literacy and career options in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). 

With the support of the Florida Lottery, the Florida Department of Education's Just Read, Florida! Office promotes this weeklong recognition to help students strengthen their literacy skills and become better prepared for academic success. 

This past year, Florida Blue and Marvel worked together to create a comic book that features Habit Heroes characters uniting with the world-famous armored Avenger, Iron Man. The comic book conveys a positive message about healthy lifestyles in a fun and empowering way.

To kick off the week, Florida Surgeon General Dr. John Armstrong and Florida Blue Chairman and CEO Pat Geraghty and other representatives will read the comic book to students at John G. Riley Elementary School in Tallahassee.

"Healthy children are vital for the future of Florida," said State Surgeon General and Secretary of Health Dr. John Armstrong. "If kids can learn about healthy eating and regular activity now, they will be on course for better health for the rest of their lives."

"We are honored to play a part in Celebrate Literacy Week, Florida!" said Pat Geraghty, chairman and CEO of Florida Blue. "We created this comic book with Marvel hoping it would encourage children to enjoy reading while also learning valuable lessons about living a healthy lifestyle."

Hundreds of volunteers across the state have committed to read the comic book in more than 4,700 classrooms during the weeklong literacy celebration, ending Jan. 17, 2014. These volunteers are utilizing Habit Hero kits, each containing 25 copies of the comic book, wristbands and additional activities to help engage students and their parents.

Through the Department of Education's ongoing partnership with the Florida Lottery and the Celebrate Literacy Week educational partners, it has been able to bring portable planetariums onto school grounds and hold mini-planetarium experiences with students, creating an opportunity for teachers, parents and educators to make the connection between literacy and content areas such as science.

To learn more about the Department of Education's annual campaign to strengthen literacy skills, visit 2014 Celebrate Literacy Week, Florida!

To learn more about the Habit Heroes comic book, visit Florida Blue's website.

SOURCE Florida Blue