I spoke to K-8 students today at Cal in their auditorium. The speech started off exciting when I asked one of the K students what was his special dream? He said with much zeal, I want to raise a real live dinosaur . . . and then he proceeded to tell me how we would do this.

Then during our baseball skit, I asked a rather quiet adolescent if he'd like to be my umpire and he gave me a curious gaze. To break the ice, I asked him if he could say "Play ball" with authority. At the top of his voice he screamed, "PLAY BALL!" And then throughout the skit he continued screaming, "PLAY BALL!" I believe I found this young man's true calling . . . or possibly being a drill sergeant would serve him well.

Cal is a closeknit school district with all grades centered in one area. Mindy, who arranged my visit, only requested a 100 dollars worth of books from the 300 dollars worth of donations they received. She said I'd need the extra money and I certainly couldn't disagree with her when the average cost of a room is 65 to 75 dollars. If the weather was nicer, I'd prefer staying at an RV camp that only costs 17.50 a night. I just hate seeing so much money being spent on hotel expenses when we're trying to raise money for the books for the Principal Park book give away.

I am hoping as I travel across Iowa we'll find sponsors and good-hearted companies like ESPN who've offered us free hats to give away to deserved students. When children see corporations willing to spend hard-earned dollars on reading literacy they'll become more engaged in reading. We can ill afford to throw free books at children and expect them to read them. We need to start creating specialty events that will excite children to want to read and assure them that if a company like ESPN is willing to ante up for the cause then reading must be important.